<story><title>Tim Berners-Lee wins Turing Award</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2017/tim-berners-lee-wins-turing-award-0404</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chubot</author><text>I always felt that Tim Berners-Lee was not respected enough in both the computer science and programming communities.  I felt it especially after working for over a decade at Google, which literally built its entire business on TBL&amp;#x27;s architectural concepts.&lt;p&gt;For example, Google and other search engines would not work without the principle of least power [1], which a lot of people, including Alan Kay [2], somehow don&amp;#x27;t understand.  That is, if the web language was a VM rather than HTML, there would be no Google.&lt;p&gt;It would also not have been possible for the web to make the jump from desktops to cell phones as the #1 client now.  You know the handler in iOS and Android that makes &amp;lt;select&amp;gt; boxes usable?  That&amp;#x27;s an example of the principle of least power.&lt;p&gt;I recommend reading his book &amp;quot;Weaving the Web&amp;quot; [2] if you want to learn more about the story behind the web.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very glad that TBL is getting this recognition.  He is a genius and also has a very generous personality.&lt;p&gt;People in the programming community seem to talk about Torvalds or Stallman a lot, perhaps because of their loud styles, but I don&amp;#x27;t see that much about TBL.&lt;p&gt;Ditto in the CS community.  &amp;quot;HyperText&amp;quot; used to be a big research area but I guess TBL solved it and people don&amp;#x27;t talk about it anymore.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rule_of_least_power&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rule_of_least_power&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drdobbs.com&amp;#x2F;architecture-and-design&amp;#x2F;interview-with-alan-kay&amp;#x2F;240003442&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drdobbs.com&amp;#x2F;architecture-and-design&amp;#x2F;interview-wit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Weaving-Web-Original-Ultimate-Destiny&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;006251587X&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Weaving-Web-Original-Ultimate-Destiny...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>madiathomas</author><text>This goes to show how hard winning Turing award is. One would have expected someone who invented the most useful invention of the 20th century to have won this award long time ago. Maybe I am just overvaluing www because of the impact it had on people&amp;#x27;s lives.&lt;p&gt;EDITED: 20th century, not 19th.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gambler</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;For example, Google and other search engines would not work without the principle of least power [1], which a lot of people, including Alan Kay [2], somehow don&amp;#x27;t understand. That is, if the web language was a VM rather than HTML, there would be no Google.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kay&amp;#x27;s criticism of the Web is very well justified and (like most of his high-level criticisms) typically misunderstood. He doesn&amp;#x27;t criticize it as a repository of hyperlinked documents. He criticizes it as platform for application delivery, which it became. Modern web with all its scripts &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; a VM -- and badly designed one at that.</text></comment>
<story><title>Tim Berners-Lee wins Turing Award</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2017/tim-berners-lee-wins-turing-award-0404</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chubot</author><text>I always felt that Tim Berners-Lee was not respected enough in both the computer science and programming communities.  I felt it especially after working for over a decade at Google, which literally built its entire business on TBL&amp;#x27;s architectural concepts.&lt;p&gt;For example, Google and other search engines would not work without the principle of least power [1], which a lot of people, including Alan Kay [2], somehow don&amp;#x27;t understand.  That is, if the web language was a VM rather than HTML, there would be no Google.&lt;p&gt;It would also not have been possible for the web to make the jump from desktops to cell phones as the #1 client now.  You know the handler in iOS and Android that makes &amp;lt;select&amp;gt; boxes usable?  That&amp;#x27;s an example of the principle of least power.&lt;p&gt;I recommend reading his book &amp;quot;Weaving the Web&amp;quot; [2] if you want to learn more about the story behind the web.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very glad that TBL is getting this recognition.  He is a genius and also has a very generous personality.&lt;p&gt;People in the programming community seem to talk about Torvalds or Stallman a lot, perhaps because of their loud styles, but I don&amp;#x27;t see that much about TBL.&lt;p&gt;Ditto in the CS community.  &amp;quot;HyperText&amp;quot; used to be a big research area but I guess TBL solved it and people don&amp;#x27;t talk about it anymore.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rule_of_least_power&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rule_of_least_power&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drdobbs.com&amp;#x2F;architecture-and-design&amp;#x2F;interview-with-alan-kay&amp;#x2F;240003442&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.drdobbs.com&amp;#x2F;architecture-and-design&amp;#x2F;interview-wit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Weaving-Web-Original-Ultimate-Destiny&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;006251587X&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Weaving-Web-Original-Ultimate-Destiny...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>madiathomas</author><text>This goes to show how hard winning Turing award is. One would have expected someone who invented the most useful invention of the 20th century to have won this award long time ago. Maybe I am just overvaluing www because of the impact it had on people&amp;#x27;s lives.&lt;p&gt;EDITED: 20th century, not 19th.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>noblethrasher</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t want to detract from TBL&amp;#x27;s accomplishments, especially on this occasion but, he didn&amp;#x27;t solve the hypertext problem insomuch as he decided that the really hard things like provenance and bidirectional linkages weren&amp;#x27;t important. Google and Facebook did solve those problems, but only for commercial benefit. Moreover, it&amp;#x27;s clear that TBL regrets that early decision to the degree that he rails against the walled gardens.</text></comment>