Interview with Jonathan Blow at LambdaConf 2024

In this exclusive interview from LambdaConf 2024, John de Goes sits down with renowned game designer and programmer Jonathan Blow and discusses the "Unknown" systems programming language designed by Jon. Learn about his takes on systems programming languages and more.
Blow is best known as the creator of the highly influential and acclaimed indie games Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016). Braid was a critical darling that helped establish the artistic potential of indie games, while The Witness is considered a masterpiece of game design and worldbuilding.
#lambdaconf2024 #JonathanBlow #braid #TheWitness

[@the_patrik]

I had hoped the interview was longer!

[@jh1618]

I get cramps in my leg watching the interviewer put his leg like that for half an hour

[@IgnacioTaranto]

It's seems weird he's not aware at least at the bare minimum of all the "better C's" programming languages that have been popping out in the recent years. Namely, Zig, Odin, Hare and others.

[@ДенисКочев-э2ь]

why interview was so short :(

[@sn00pysfone]

8:00 man I have never thought about this before, very insightful.

[@remycombes39]

Jonathan blow is the zamenhof of coding.

[@monfera]

Another promising Jonathan Blow interview impacted by the amount of interviewer backchanneling, talking over and interrupting. Not sure why Blow attracts an interviewing style like that of Casey. The volume is also balanced way in favor of the interviewer; a multi-channel recording could be used to fix that.

[@grendel_eoten]

bro is alive

[@bastiaan9127]

I see a lot of overlap with the D programming language. Which is available to everyone.

[@nerdError0XF]

In the very first video on Jai called "Ideas about a new programming language for games" Jon said that D it is one of the best alternatives he found, but the thing he kinda didn't like is that its too similar to C++, and he wanted to go into other direction. Though this video was released 9 years ago, so this information my be pretty outdated

[@bastiaan9127]

@@nerdError0XF Thanks, I just watched it, very interesting! One of his arguments against D is that it has RAII, and he definitely doesn't want RAII. Nowadays D has alternatives like std.allocator, by the way written by Andrei Alexandrescu whom he also quotes, that let you deal with memory in flexible and interesting ways. Also, regarding exceptions, D has the nothrow attribute that lets you not have to deal with exceptions in (part of) your code. He has the right ideas, a big one being joy of programming. Joy of programming is the biggest reason I am using D.

[@CostaBushnaq]

@@bastiaan9127 Started D a week ago, came from C++ and C. I haven't been happier codding since long ago. What I love about D compared to Go or say Rust, is that you can learn how the language works just by looking at code, you don't have to force yourself to read pages and pages and pages of documentation and theoretical blabbing. In D everything is verbose, and explicit and I love it.

[@dullyvampir83]

@@bastiaan9127 thing is, D has a garbage collector, sure you can deactivate it. But many features depend on it and how enjoyable is the language then.

[@bastiaan9127]

@@dullyvampir83 If you worry about the gc, what you really should worry about is memory allocation -- in any language. In D, as long as you don't allocate, there is no gc overhead or disruption. Pre-allocate before you go in the hot loop, just like you would do normally when you focus on low latency and performance. D is known for its malleable code, which allows you to produce quick prototypes and then gradually refine them towards production quality. Profiling can help identify where it is worthwhile to give extra attention to memory allocation. Speaking of D garbage collection, the 2024 DConf talks by Steven Schveighoffer and Amaury Séchet report on work to replace the admittingly old collector with a state of the art implementation.

[@RicharRest]

Great Interview

[@Junglewarfare]

Wish I could get my hands on it but Jai is a cool kids club right now