Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe most recent paper mentioned here is from 2000. The most recent 'greatest of the great' is from 1978. Is it simply that it takes a long time for us to decide what constitutes a significant advancement, or is something else going on?
I'm a bit surprised not to see any papers by Simon Peyton-Jones (of Haskell fame) on the list. I guess most of the papers on this list were old classics and many of the authors have already passed away or retired. SPJ is one of the most relevant programming language researchers of the past 20 years, but maybe his work is "too new" for this list. Reading his books and papers taught sparked the interest in programming languages in me.
A very impressive list. I wondered how accessable these articles are and searched for the first one. My first hit was a retrospective written by C.A.R. Hoare in 2009. It too is a very interesting read. Haven't found the original though... http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1562764.1562779
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 473
- Total comments
- 92
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-03-08 | Great Works in Programming Languages | primodemus | 4 | 0 |
| 2012-07-24 | Great Works in Programming Languages | spacemanaki | 3 | 0 |
| 2013-06-13 | Great Works in Programming LanguagesFirst breakout | timf | 184 | 46 |
| 2014-04-24 | Great Works in Programming Languages | adbge | 2 | 0 |
| 2014-11-30 | Great Works in Programming LanguagesBest thread | adamnemecek | 212 | 37 |
| 2015-06-02 | Great Works in Programming LanguagesLatest 20+ point return | mirceasoaica | 67 | 9 |
| 2017-10-01 | Great Works in Programming Languages (2004) | relyio | 1 | 0 |