Dave Ungar, Co-Creator of Self and ACM Fellow

David Ungar is an out-of-the-box thinker who enjoys the challenge of building computer software systems that work like magic and fit a user's mind like a glove. He received the 2009 Dahl-Nygaard award for outstanding career contributions in the field of object-orientation, and was honored as an ACM Fellow in 2010. Three of his papers have been honored by the Association for Computing Machinery for lasting impact over ten to twenty-four years: for the design of the prototype-based Self language, dynamic optimization techniques, and the application of cartoon animation ideas to user interfaces. He enjoys a position at IBM Research, where he is taking on a new challenge: investigating how application programmers can exploit manycore systems, and testing those ideas to see if they can help scale up analytics.

Presentation: "Objects On Trial"

Time: Wednesday 09:20 - 10:20

Location: Metropolitan Ballroom

Abstract: It’s been a quarter of a century since objects really arrived on the software scene, with great fanfare, lofty expectations, and more than a little hype. One can argue, and there are those who do, that objects have won. That their triumph is complete. That object-oriented programming has become, well, programming. And yet, the case can be made that this “victory” has come at a cost that must be measured against the conceptual complexity these highbrow languages have brought with them, the architectural Balkanization and “Trail of Tiers” they have wrought, and the impedance mismatches that have resulted from the Babel of languages that O-O has spawned, and its defeat in the data tier.

Have objects met the transformative promises made for them a generation ago? Or have they done more harm than good?

The time has come to put them on trial. We’ll remand objects themselves to the dock, and hear from a panel of distinguished, expert witnesses for the prosecution and the defense, before letting the You, the Jury, decide their fate.