📖Self and self: whys and wherefores

Values → Principles → Practices

• 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.

Forget compilers, interpreters / create a consistent experience

q

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

Self has quite a legacy

• 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.)

Artist vs. Entertainer