Congratulations and thanks for all the work on the beautiful language I have been studying and using the last fifteen years. Regards, Henk-Jan van Tuyl On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:37:06 +0100, Simon Peyton Jones via Haskell-Cafe wrote:

Hmm. Maybe 1987 was thirty years ago, not forty. Clearly old age saps one’s mental arithmetic. Best to read the paperhttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fresearch%2Fpublication%2Fa-history-of-haskell-being-lazy-with-class%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cc4d7a883633f4bc5be7308d55e975753%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636518926451639509&sdata=PIKf6Tp95N2w%2F%2BwnQwyLNkuoIP5p%2F%2FofI%2B7eAccJnJM%3D&reserved=0 😊. Simon From: Haskell-Cafe [mailto:haskell-cafe-bounces@haskell.org] On Behalf Of Simon Peyton Jones via Haskell-Cafe Sent: 18 January 2018 17:14 To: haskell@haskell.org; Haskell Cafe Subject: [Haskell-cafe] A small milestone

Cherished friends Today is my sixtieth birthday. It is just over forty thirty years since Phil and I called in at Yale on my way to FPCA, and floated the idea of Haskell with Paul Hudakhttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fresearch%2Fpublication%2Fa-history-of-haskell-being-lazy-with-class%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cc4d7a883633f4bc5be7308d55e975753%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636518926451639509&sdata=PIKf6Tp95N2w%2F%2BwnQwyLNkuoIP5p%2F%2FofI%2B7eAccJnJM%3D&reserved=0. (It wasn’t called Haskell then, of course.) Rather a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. GHC’s bug tracker is up to 14,683 tickets; I have read every one of them. But the best thing is Haskell’s rich community of smart, motivated, passionate, and friendly colleagues. There was a time when I knew every Haskell programmer on the planet, but we are far, far beyond that point. Now it’s beyond me even to keep up with the huge wave of elegant and creative ideas, tools, libraries, and blog posts that you generate. (Kudos to Taylor – and doubtless other colleagues -- for the Haskell Weekly Newshttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhaskellweekly.news%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csimonpj%40microsoft.com%7Cc4d7a883633f4bc5be7308d55e975753%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636518926451639509&sdata=dIrK%2FTAR35aPdiqWiiLWx3VxEpnZxONI%2FX%2Bbdz0dXA0%3D&reserved=0, which I love.) But despite its size, it’s a community that is still characterised by a love of elegance, and a desire to distil the essence of an idea and encapsulate it in an abstraction, all tempered with respect and tolerance. We don’t always live up to these ideals, but by and large we do. Thank you all. Onward and upward! Simon PS: as birthday recreation I’m working on https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/QuantifiedContexts

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Amen to that! Discovering Haskell was a revelation for me as well. I couldn't believe the beauty of it. Despite reading a lot about Haskell, and watching some very entertaining videos featuring SPJ among others, I never got comfortable at it (using C++ in my day job). Still, it is a great inspiration for me. I am delighted that this beautiful language exists, and I do hope that one day I'll be decent at it, but even if I don't I am richer for it. Happy birthday Simon, and many thanks! -greg _____ From: Haskell-Cafe [mailto:haskell-cafe-bounces@haskell.org] On Behalf Of Neil Mayhew Sent: Friday, January 19, 2018 4:14 PM To: Haskell Cafe Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] A small milestone On 2018-01-18 07:16 PM, Henk-Jan van Tuyl wrote: Congratulations and thanks for all the work on the beautiful language I have been studying and using the last fifteen years. I would like to echo that. I would also like to thank you, Simon, for your courteous, positive, humble and cooperative attitude that has set the tone for our whole community. I had been programming for over thirty years when I discovered Haskell, and through it functional programming, in 2008. It was a complete revelation to me, and I've not looked back. I now don't want to work in any other language if I can possibly help it. I think Haskell hits a sweet spot of expressiveness, safety and performance that is unmatched among mainstream languages. I've experimented with some other functional languages, and I think Haskell stands head and shoulders above them all. Happy Birthday, Simon :-) -Neil