The trials of the systems programmer

Posted Sep 17, 2020 16:13 UTC (Thu) by sdalley (subscriber, #18550)
In reply to: BPF in GCC by matthias
Parent article: BPF in GCC

I'll say. There are months worth of QOTWs in it. E.g:

You might ask, “Why would someone write code in a grotesque language that exposes raw memory addresses? Why not use a modern language with garbage collection and functional programming and free massages after lunch?” Here’s the answer: Pointers are real. They’re what the hardware understands. Somebody has to deal with them. You can’t just place a LISP book on top of an x86 chip and hope that the hardware learns about lambda calculus by osmosis.

The trials of the systems programmer

Posted Sep 17, 2020 17:23 UTC (Thu) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link] (1 responses)

Is there a name for this style of writing?

It's bizarre hyperbole from the get-go. The few articles I've read by Mickens suggests he can get away with it. Quite a feat!

The trials of the systems programmer

Posted Sep 17, 2020 22:33 UTC (Thu) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

I'd be fine with calling it Mickensian.

His talks (at least those I've seen) are also done with similar turns of phrase.