HOPL IV
The HOPL (History of Programming Languages) conference is a rare event - in 2021, it's only seeing its fourth instalment. The talks and papers at HOPL are typically larger descriptions of how certain programming languages came to be, or have developed over time. Many of the authors and presenters at HOPL are key players in the field, with long and impactful careers.
HOPL 2021 does not disappoint, and the pre-recorded talks are a treasure trove. There are talks from people who know about Logo, Clojure, JavaScript, MATLAB, C++, VHDL, ... to name just a few. Due to my own past, I'm sort of personally attached to this presentation on Smalltalk by Dan Ingalls. The Smalltalk programming language and its implementation were my main research area for several years, and I used Smalltalk VMs in my academic teaching. Dan Ingalls is one of the creators of Smalltalk who has been working with and on several generations of the language and its implementation since the Seventies.
To see a truly different language for a change, don't miss the presentation on APL.
And finally, there's a talk by James Noble and Robert Biddle. Just this much: these two never disappoint. Give it a try.
Tags: the-nerdy-bit