New horizons for SPJ
discourse.haskell.org
discourse.haskell.org
This does feel like a significant loss to MSR, and a massive gain for wherever he ends up. Fingers crossed it is a teaching role, as I'd like to think we'd all benefit from turning a few more SPJs loose on the world.
There is a recent MSR podcast episode with SPJ and Andy Gordon that is definitely worth a listen¹. It dips in to their histories, and also their work on Excel.
¹ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/podcast/advancing-e...
Edit: My other memory was the sheer level of professionalism in the support staff at MSR Cambridge, I simply can't recall anywhere I've been where the support staff have been as helpful and courteous as they were there.
Either way, it's a blow to MSR - SPJ is such a luminary in the world of Haskell/PLT. Best wishes for whatever he winds up doing next; no doubt it'll be great.
This is what got me with Haskell. Any question is derailed into theory to the point where getting anything done is difficult.
It's not that bad. Honestly the only reason we shipped it was because the prototype I did in it worked too well.
I had a backup almost ready in time written in C++ in case it got too tricky for others to maintain, and it was a simple component in a larger software stack.
I want to make things not argue about the best, or most technically correct, way to make them.
Personally, I consider it more complex to have to think about what side effects every piece of code has and what order things are evaluated in. The fact that I don't have to worry about these things in Haskell is a breath of fresh air for me. Also, not having to deal with the complexity of OOP when an ordinary function will do.
I think it's a misconception that Haskell is more complex than whatever popular OOP language people are using. It just looks more complex because it's less familiar (which I think is a problem with what we teach students in school).
This is a problem I have at work. Everyone here thinks unfamiliar and hard / complex are synonyms. They aren't!
Well, not all programming languages are for all people, and there are people who prefer the theoretical approach. Calling that an obsession with complexity is, I think, unfair, or at least inaccurate.
Eh, I don't think it's any different than the general trend of people moving around. 23 years at a company would indicate that it's been a pretty solid place to work.
I have no insight into the company as you do, but that is the first impression I’d get from the circumstances. People don’t stay at a company for 23 years only to jump ship for the same reasons early-career people jump around.