[krajzeg]

> ...GraalVM Truffle framework... Futurama Projections...

I know it's partly on me for not knowing the domain, but I honestly suspected somebody is trying to make fun of me with some concentrated technobabble.

Especially since I wouldn't expect the topic (configuration languages) to require complex mathematical machinery to work with. Now I have something interesting to dig into.

[TimTheTinker]

What has most impressed me about GraalVM and Truffle is their capability of deep-optimizing high-level code like Python and Ruby.

I once saw a demo where someone took a simple operation in Ruby using inefficient-but-elegant syntax (including creating and sorting an array, where a simple loop would have been the appropriate approach in C). He compiled that using TruffleRuby and the entire array construction and sorting was completely optimized out of the generated bytecode.

[Alifatisk]

Really? Link?

[grashalm]

He probably means one of the wonderfully crafted talks by Chris Seaton.

Here is one of the many: https://youtu.be/bf5pQVgux3c?si=S8Dm5d_GXYXgJtnY

If you go looking for more you will find many more marbles.

[grashalm]

Shameless self plug: Giving an introduction in this video: https://youtu.be/pksRrON5XfU?si=CmutoA5Fcwa287Yl

[refulgentis]

Gently teasing: linking a 2 hour video with "shameless self plug" definitely did _not_ help obviate the surreality.

[hoherd]

I'm not sure if it was part of the humor, so pardon me if it was, but it's actually "Futamura" as in Yoshihiko Futamura, not "Futurama".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_evaluation#Futamura_pr...

[Xiol32]

Really glad it wasn't just me. Genuinely thought someone was trying to make a joke.

[avisser]

Same - it doesn't help that I read Futamura as Futurama the first 3 times.

[avianlyric]

Probably because the original comment said “Futurama” not “Futamura” due to autocorrect [0], and was later edited to correct the misspelling.

Even now the OG comment says “Fuamura” but the quote in the GP comment has the original “Futurama” written in it.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39239965

[felideon]

For me it was about 5, until I read your comment. :/

[tomcam]

Same. There was a mini subthread years ago that applies.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13752964

[EPWN3D]

Glad I'm not the only one who had this reaction. I just can't bring myself to accept that a problem that could be solved with a slightly better version of JSON or property lists requires this many buzzwords.

[duped]

Those aren't "buzzwords" though, it's a very specific way to implement programming languages. It's not really meaningful except for the PL implementation nerds.

Especially the Futamura projections. It's almost magic and very few people have even heard of them.

[grashalm]

Very few people have heard of them. That is exactly the reason why I mention them as often as I can. They are a great entry into the world of meta compilers.

[usrusr]

If Futamurma means what I think it means skimming across the Wikipedia entry, it would mean that simple value-holder-file configurations would be parsed and checked at the speed of a general purpose tokenizer. But without closing the door to what the language can express in more elaborate configuration file "landscapes". Best of both worlds and presumably all without requiring anybody but the toolmakers to understand what the buzzwords really mean.

[paufernandez]

The best video I know about this stuff is "Compilers for free" by Tom Stuart (https://youtu.be/n_k6O50Nd-4). It is hilarious at one point. Brilliant.

[dbu21]

Fantastic talk! Thanks for sharing.

[junon]

Genuinely read "Futurama Projections" and figured the same. This doesn't sound real (though I fully trust it is, just sounds funny).

[konstante]

>...suspected somebody is trying to make fun of me...

I think that too, "Futamura projections" are important but they are very very far from "complex mathematical machinery" as you may hear it. They are indeed very simple (even mathematically trivial) and require no special background to understand.

[leonheld]

> but I honestly suspected somebody is trying to make fun of me with some concentrated technobabble

Let me tell about a revolutionary device called a Turbo encabulator.

[ughitsaaron]

sounds like a perfectly cromulent topic to embiggen our knowledge.

[egberts1]

Perfectumentous!

[ChrisMarshallNY]

An author named David Duncan wrote a series of books, called A Man of His Word (and A Handful of Men)[0]. Great books.

One of the races in the books was the Anthropophagi (basically modeled on New Guinea headhunters). They talked like that.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Duncan_(writer)

[yurishimo]

You joke, but this is surprisingly close to the name given to Dumbledore in the Dutch translation of Harry Potter.

[fuzztester]

supercali ...

[ativzzz]

You joke but newer rails versions come with a front end framework named Turbo, and there's also a JS bundler named Turbo, so this is actually too close to reality

[Cthulhu_]

It makes me think of this game, basically "pokemon or technobabble". Can't find it now though.

[girvo]

There's Pokémon or Big Data: http://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/

And the (original, I think), Pokémon or Tech Term: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsG7AEFLvlW68aIVIs...

[pushedx]

> Futamura

not Futurama :D

[stockholm]

This comment is what PKL is going to be remembered for. Tbh I wouldn’t even have the courage to write the comment myself as the framework was coming from Apple.