Understanding Arthur Whitney's C Programming Style and APL-Inspired Design Philosophy
By
gudzpoz
Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
Summary
The article is a personal exploration of learning to read and understand Arthur Whitney's C code, focusing on the author's journey to comprehend the programming style and techniques used by the esteemed computer scientist. The author discusses Whitney's influence on financial software like kdb, his APL-inspired language design philosophy, and the challenges of understanding his minimalist, efficient coding approach. The piece blends technical analysis with personal reflection on the learning process.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledArthur Whitney is an esteemed computer scientist who led the design on a few well-known pieces of software
I've never even seen a trillion numbers, much less calculated them, but kdb is apparently a standard tool on Wall Street
His languages take significantly after APL, which was a very popular language for similar applications before the invention of (qwerty) keyboards
But I'm not here to talk about boring things like 'using software to make incomprehensible amounts of money'
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