📖Self and self: whys and wherefores

• values: what you want, what you like
• principles: general rules for achieving values
• practices: specific things to do

For every feature in the language, know which value it serves

Don’t just make it elegant, or powerful. Know why for each design choice.

q

With great people, you can do anything! Don’t waste them on the possible! (The challenge will attract the great ones.)

• first to use prototype-based inheritance
• everything is an object (more so than smalltalk)
  • smalltalk emphasized classes and tools, not objects
• first to use animation
  • motion blur, shadow, expand, fade-in/fade-out
• generation scavenging GC

• dynamic compilation (JIT)

  Key idea: Misdirection The code that runs only has to fool the user into thinking it’s the code he wrote. Just like stage magic.

  • lazy compilation
• dynamic deoptimization

q

Even if your ideas succeed, the real legacy is the people.

(People who learned on your project go on to other projects and do even more cool things.)