There's a weird interplay between comments and submissions on HN. Popular comment about Bellard yesterday? Bet you'll see a write-up of Bellard submitted today.
The third stage will be tomorrow when comments casually refer to information gleaned from the article submitted today as if it were common knowledge. There will be an article about a new JS framework and someone will make a comment like "of course, programmers like Bellard[0] managed to be quite productive without the use of a similar framework."
> Popular comment about Bellard yesterday? Bet you'll see a write-up of Bellard submitted today.
I don't know what triggered this particular (re)submission, but I found about his quickjs hours ago by reading a thread about javascript in youtube-dl that is a serious candidate ...
I'd say Fabrice Bellard is more a "mythical mainstay". It's hard to go a week without someone posting about him and his projects if you keep an eye out for it. Right now 3 of the stories on the front page (including this one) have mentions of him which is definitely more than average but even when this dips down you'll still see the constant trickle.
A large part of it is obviously that his projects really are good and plentiful but I think another sizeable part is due to something the article points out: he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN... he just writes great code. It's both admirable/enviable as well as a bit more mysterious or "out of reach" than a lot of the other "legendary programmers" e.g. Justine who write equally amazing things but are a bit more tangible here. Not that one way is right or wrong it just helps his name get pretty consistently randomly brought up by HNers.
>he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN
IMO, that is what makes him so unique and a bazillion times better than other so-called "greats". And he gives away all of his work for free. He lives by actual principles, morals and ethics which most of us only mouth.
What i really really would like to see is an in-depth interview with him on his Worldviews, Problem solving approach, How to focus on studying something, Productivity tips etc. I can't help but feel that he has a certain approach to life, studies and work (not just hard work) which if we could learn from would make us "better".
Except I feel Bellard should be as famous an John Carmack in the Anglosphere, or whatever you want to call it, and I'm not sure he is probably because he values privacy and quiet work time
Many people are very critical of his coding style and 'paranoia', but still, he wrote some of the most bug free/solid programs and has been right with his predictions far more often than not.
As a programmer, I am in awe of what Fabrice Bellard has accomplished. This article made me curious about his background, jokingly thinking that if he was Catholic he could become the Patron Saint of Computer Programmers for giving away many millions of software for free. I was amused to find he was born in the place that kicked off the French Revolution:
The city gained some notoriety on 7 June 1788 when the townspeople assaulted troops of Louis XVI in the "Day of the Tiles". The people attacked the royal troops to prevent an expulsion of the notables of the city, which would have seriously endangered the economic prosperity of Grenoble. Following these events, the Assembly of Vizille took place. Its members organized the meeting of the old Estates General, thus beginning the French Revolution.
Let it be known, despite his lack of public activity and consistent refusal to interviews, Bellard is very kind.
I emailed him curious about attempts in browser development, replied within two days! Maybe that’s common than I think, I don’t email outside of work often.
The tech community is one of most interesting communities : on one hand there are overwhelmingly evangelists saying your language is “dead”, on the other hand that “dead” language is used by heroes who are changing the world. And both parties are striving even though what they are saying are obviously contradictory.
I guess he just showed us how to make a point without making a point.
Heroes wear many capes - don’t forget about the person that just spent 4000 hours creating an application with complex menu’s and logic for a specific domain.
The right person can be extremely productive and generate incredible value anywhere, but often it just isn’t as sexy as compression algorithms.
A tip of my hat to all you hard working talented people out there.
I feel like you may have some good intention behind your post but it comes off as really condescending, as if all Mr. Bellard accomplished is some sexy compression algorithm.
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There's a weird interplay between comments and submissions on HN. Popular comment about Bellard yesterday? Bet you'll see a write-up of Bellard submitted today.
The third stage will be tomorrow when comments casually refer to information gleaned from the article submitted today as if it were common knowledge. There will be an article about a new JS framework and someone will make a comment like "of course, programmers like Bellard[0] managed to be quite productive without the use of a similar framework."
The circle of life is majestic to behold.
> Popular comment about Bellard yesterday? Bet you'll see a write-up of Bellard submitted today.
I don't know what triggered this particular (re)submission, but I found about his quickjs hours ago by reading a thread about javascript in youtube-dl that is a serious candidate ...
I'd say Fabrice Bellard is more a "mythical mainstay". It's hard to go a week without someone posting about him and his projects if you keep an eye out for it. Right now 3 of the stories on the front page (including this one) have mentions of him which is definitely more than average but even when this dips down you'll still see the constant trickle.
A large part of it is obviously that his projects really are good and plentiful but I think another sizeable part is due to something the article points out: he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN... he just writes great code. It's both admirable/enviable as well as a bit more mysterious or "out of reach" than a lot of the other "legendary programmers" e.g. Justine who write equally amazing things but are a bit more tangible here. Not that one way is right or wrong it just helps his name get pretty consistently randomly brought up by HNers.
If possible, can you please link the comments? I really like to read anything on Bellard
You can use the search feature of HN and ask to order by date.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
He's quite a good programmer but this kind of fandom/idolatry isn't healthy, emotionally or for your own skill development.
>he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN
IMO, that is what makes him so unique and a bazillion times better than other so-called "greats". And he gives away all of his work for free. He lives by actual principles, morals and ethics which most of us only mouth.
What i really really would like to see is an in-depth interview with him on his Worldviews, Problem solving approach, How to focus on studying something, Productivity tips etc. I can't help but feel that he has a certain approach to life, studies and work (not just hard work) which if we could learn from would make us "better".
who is justine?
Justine Tunney - creator of red bean, here’s the original HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26271117
Except I feel Bellard should be as famous an John Carmack in the Anglosphere, or whatever you want to call it, and I'm not sure he is probably because he values privacy and quiet work time
I've noticed that pattern as well. You put it into words nicely.
There’s a comment I read on the other article where someone said > that dude is a wizard wielding c like a brain surgeon wields a scalpel.
I’ve decided that’s the analogy I’ll be using for someone who’s really good at something
The other being D.J.Bernstein. (I admire, or dare I say envy, the work of both of them btw.)
Many people are very critical of his coding style and 'paranoia', but still, he wrote some of the most bug free/solid programs and has been right with his predictions far more often than not.
As a programmer, I am in awe of what Fabrice Bellard has accomplished. This article made me curious about his background, jokingly thinking that if he was Catholic he could become the Patron Saint of Computer Programmers for giving away many millions of software for free. I was amused to find he was born in the place that kicked off the French Revolution:
The city gained some notoriety on 7 June 1788 when the townspeople assaulted troops of Louis XVI in the "Day of the Tiles". The people attacked the royal troops to prevent an expulsion of the notables of the city, which would have seriously endangered the economic prosperity of Grenoble. Following these events, the Assembly of Vizille took place. Its members organized the meeting of the old Estates General, thus beginning the French Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenoble#From_Louis_XIV_to_the...
From the French Revolution to the PC and internet revolution
The article is old and since he hasn't slowed down, there's more: https://bellard.org/ including QuickJS, and embedable JavaScript engine: https://bellard.org/quickjs/
Let it be known, despite his lack of public activity and consistent refusal to interviews, Bellard is very kind.
I emailed him curious about attempts in browser development, replied within two days! Maybe that’s common than I think, I don’t email outside of work often.
Fabrice Bellard -- the programmer that makes John Carmack go "whoa, slow down buddy, let the rest of us catch up".
When anyone tells me that "there’s no such thing as a 10x programmer", he’s my go-to example.
He's more of an exception that confirm the rules than an example.
The guy has several project that most of us would be proud to have one of.
The tech community is one of most interesting communities : on one hand there are overwhelmingly evangelists saying your language is “dead”, on the other hand that “dead” language is used by heroes who are changing the world. And both parties are striving even though what they are saying are obviously contradictory.
I guess he just showed us how to make a point without making a point.
Heroes wear many capes - don’t forget about the person that just spent 4000 hours creating an application with complex menu’s and logic for a specific domain.
The right person can be extremely productive and generate incredible value anywhere, but often it just isn’t as sexy as compression algorithms.
A tip of my hat to all you hard working talented people out there.
I feel like you may have some good intention behind your post but it comes off as really condescending, as if all Mr. Bellard accomplished is some sexy compression algorithm.
Love bellard. Another super hero programmer Justin Frankel doesn't get nearly as much press.
My constant response reading about Bellard is "woah wait, be made that too?".
It's a bit of a bummer he doesn't seem to like interviews, since there's probably a lot that could be learned about his serial FOSS-entrepreneurship.
403 ERROR The request could not be satisfied. The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country. We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner. If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
Try google cache. It may be builtin in some apps for HN e.g., HACK https://apps.apple.com/en/app/hack-for-hacker-news-reader/id...