Back from ILC2003
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
I arrived in California last night at about midnight (after a 6 hour flight from NYC). I only spent one day at ILC2003, but it was worthwhile nonetheless. I gave my "Using Emacs as a Lisp IDE" presentation in the morning. Unfortunately, there were some projector cable problems and my presentation started a bit late so I didn't manage to get through all the material. However, my paper is on my ILC2003 page and the usage examples will (eventually) be put up on the CL Cookbook page.
For me, the highlight of the day was hearing Gerald Sussman give his keynote. His Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is one of my favorite books. Interestingly, I had also read Julie Sussman's book I Can Read That! A Traveler's Introduction to Chinese Characters before I went to Japan with my daughter this summer. It is a short introduction to Kanji and is both easy to read and useful (as well as being entertaining). When I chatted to Gerald Sussman just before his keynote and mentioned to him that I had also read his wife's book, he was really pleased and chatted for several minutes with me about his wife's book. He is one of the best living examples of what the teaching profession should be about. The online SICP videos of the lectures that he and Hal Abelson gave in July 1986 to HP employees are really worthwhile seeing - the enthusiasm and intelligence of these two really comes through when you see them in the video. In person, Gerald Sussman radiates the same enthusiasm and intelligence.
