We Speak Your Language
PROFESSIONALLY CURATED PODCASTS FOR COMPILER ENGINEERS
Season 4
THE HOSTS
Episode 4
Jürg Gutknecht
Jürg Gutknecht has been a significant figure in computer science since the 1980s, focusing on programming languages, operating systems, and compiler design. He is best known for co-developing the Oberon programming language and operating system alongside Niklaus Wirth, a collaboration that greatly influenced modern programming paradigms. Gutknecht earned his PhD in mathematics from ETH Zurich in 1978, where he later became a professor in the computer science department.
From 1985 to 2014, Gutknecht served as a professor at ETH Zurich, during which he introduced groundbreaking educational initiatives, including the adoption of the American-style credit system. His tenure as department head saw a significant evolution in computer science education at ETH, emphasizing modular and efficient software design. He was instrumental in advancing research on object-oriented models, component-based technologies, and tools for teaching computational thinking.
In addition to his academic roles, Gutknecht worked at IBM and Swissair, applying his theoretical knowledge to practical challenges in software engineering. His contributions extend to the development of the Zonnon programming language, a modern successor to Oberon, which integrates object-oriented programming with concurrency models.
Gutknecht’s research interests include generic programming, metaprogramming, and runtime systems. He has published extensively on these topics and participated in international collaborations aimed at improving software reliability and performance. Beyond his technical achievements, Gutknecht explored the use of computers in the arts, showcasing the interdisciplinary potential of technology. His work has left a lasting impact on both theoretical and applied aspects of computer science.
Episode 1
Martin Odersky
Martin Odersky is a German computer scientist and professor of programming methods at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He specializes in code analysis and programming languages. He spearheaded the design of Scala and Generic Java.
In 1989, he received his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich under the supervision of Niklaus Wirth, who is best known as the designer of several programming languages, including Pascal. He did postdoctoral work at IBM and Yale University.
In 1997, he implemented the GJ compiler, and his implementation became the basis of javac, the Java compiler.
In 2002, he and others began working on Scala which had its first public release in 2003.
In 2007, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
On 12 May 2011, Odersky and collaborators launched Typesafe Inc. (renamed Lightbend Inc., February 2016), a company to provide commercial support, training, and services for Scala.
He teaches three courses on the Coursera online learning platform: Functional Programming Principles in Scala, Functional Program Design in Scala and Programming Reactive Systems.
Episode 2
Bertrand Meyer
Bertand Meyer is a French academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language and the concept of design by contract.
Meyer received a master’s degree in engineering from the École Polytechnique in Paris, a second master’s degree from Stanford University, and a PhD from the Université de Nancy.
From 2001 to 2016, he was professor of software engineering at ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he pursued research on building trusted components (reusable software elements) with a guaranteed level of quality. He was Chair of the ETH Computer Science department from 2004 to 2006 and for 13 years (2003–2015) taught the Introduction to Programming course taken by all ETH computer science students, resulting in a widely disseminated programming textbook, Touch of Class (Springer).
He has held visiting positions at the University of Toulouse (Chair of Excellence, 2015–16), Politecnico di Milano, Innopolis University, Monash University and University of Technology Sydney. He is also active as a consultant (object-oriented system design, architectural reviews, technology assessment), trainer in object technology and other software topics, and conference speaker. For many years Meyer has been active in issues of research and education policy and was the founding president (2006–2011) of Informatics Europe, the association of European computer science departments.
Episode 3
Ralf Lämmel
Ralf Lämmel has been an IT professional and computer science (CS) academic since 1990, focusing on software development, software languages, and AI methods. He is a professor of software languages at the University of Koblenz, Germany, where he also serves as dean of the CS department. His academic journey began with a diploma in computer science in 1993 from the University of Rostock, where he received an award for his work on Prolog-based implementation of denotational semantics. In 1999, he earned his PhD at Rostock, with research stints at institutions such as CWI Amsterdam and INRIA.
From 1999 to 2004, he conducted research on program transformation, generic programming, and reverse engineering at CWI and Free University Amsterdam. Between 2005 and 2007, Lämmel worked in Microsoft’s R&D, contributing to language-integrated queries and XML data programmability. Since 2007, he has been affiliated with the University of Koblenz, where his research covers various aspects of software language engineering.
Ralf also worked as a software engineer at Facebook London between 2017 and 2021, focusing on AI applications in software engineering. His contributions to CS include advancements in generic functional programming, metaprogramming, and software language engineering. He has also co-founded the Software Language Engineering (SLE) conference.
Season 3
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1
Season 2
Episode 1
Nora Sandler
At just 30 years old, Nora has achieved some things that some people would not achieve in their entire lifetime. After studying at the University of Chicago, Nora went on to study at the Recurse Centre in New York, where she expanded her knowledge of compilers. In this episode, Nora will talk about her book “Writing a C Compiler” which will be published next year.
Episode 2
Walter Bright
Over his career, Walter Bright has accomplished many wonderful things, his most notable work being the D programming language. In this episode Walter discusses his life’s work, including how he embarked upon the creation of the D language and also his work creating the Zortech C++ compiler.
Episode 3
Roberto Ierusalimschy
Roberto Ierusalimschy is a legend: he is the designer and main implementer of Lua, the de facto standard for scripting languages used in video games such as Roblox, World of Warcraft and many others. More than his (incredible) stories, his (equally incredible) insights, what sets Roberto aside is his light-hearted attitude to sharing his work with the masses, and his unique sense of humor. A wonderful interview of an inspiring personality!
Season 1
Episode 1
Julien Verlaguet
For our first episode we would like to introduce Julien Verlaguet. Having been employed at Facebook for almost a decade, Julien worked predominantly as the head open source developer on their type PHP Hack. Julien since continued at Facebook to develop the Skip language and currently works self-employed as the head open source developer of Skip.
Episode 2
Doug Lea
Next, we would like to introduce Doug Lea, whose life’s work has been devoted to developing the design of Java libraries for concurrency memory management. His malloc library is widely used by software developers across the world. Doug is currently a professor and the current head of the computer science department of SUNY Oswego in New York.
Episode 3
Gerard Berry
Gerard Berry is a pioneer of compiler technology for safety-critical systems. He began his studies in computer science all the way back in 1968. Gerard has watched software technology grow into what it is today – he has seen it all, and then some. In this episode he will discuss the history, infancy, and development of his very own language, ESTEREL.
Episode 4
Leandro Melo
Leandro Melo, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, first began his studies in control and automaton engineering before realising that his true passion lay in compiler technology. During his career he has worked intensively with the C++ language, including his work on the Nokia Qt IDE project. In this episode he will discuss his work and the challenges he has faced working with C++.
Episode 5
Manuel Serrano
Manuel Serrano is a researcher at INRIA in Sophia Antipolis, where he focuses on language design and implementation of high-level programming languages, also leading workshops in Scheme and Functional Programming and Dynamic Language Symposium. In this episode, amongst other topics, he will discuss his work on the development of his ahead of time Javascript compiler.
Episode 6
Cliff Click
Cliff Click wrote his first compiler at just 15 years old. During his career Cliff has proceeded to write the Java HotSpot JIT compiler. This compiler was one of the very first of its kind, which gracefully brought Java into the mainstream in the manner in which it is used today, which Cliff will discuss in detail in this episode.
MANIFESTO
If you are fascinated by programming languages, if they are more than just a tool, whether you design them, compile or interpret them, analyze, optimize or measure them – this podcast is for you.
Hosted by Darius Blasband and Jan Vitek, each episode features an interview with a guest from the field of compiler technology. We focus on people with the particular mindset it takes to work on language technologies, a mindset wired to think about programs as abstract objects to be studied, manipulated and transformed, and languages and compilers as playgrounds of the creative mind.
We stay away from the technicalities that have been described extensively in separately published material.
Instead, we interview language designers, past and current, compiler writers, tool developers, educators, researchers, the famous as well as the confidential, but always with a story to tell, always with a fresh perspective. They share ideas, motivations, ambitions and even frustrations.
Our community is made of passionate people, with strong and sometimes conflicting opinions, but conversations remain civil even when we disagree on most things. This is about confronting ideas, not about winning an argument.
So join us for inspiring conversations with inspiring people.
After all, it’s in the title.
We speak your language.
