今天终于见到了仰慕已久的大牛——安德斯·海尔斯伯格，微软总部之旅，算是没有白来。安德斯是世界级的编译器技术领导者，他最早为Algol-60语言撰写编译器，然后将自己撰写的Pascal语言编译器授权给了Borland公司，这就是举世闻名的Turbo Pascal，也是后来演化成为作为Delphi集成开发环境的基础语言的Object Pascal的核心。后来，在两大编译器和开发工具厂商的技术和产品之争白热化之际，比尔·盖茨亲自出面挖角，安德斯来到了微软，并在当年就形成了一套极有竞争力的架构——这就是.NET架构，而这个架构使用的工具语言也是他一手设计出来的——这就是C#语言。值得注意的是，自从安德斯来到微软以后，Borland的表现简直可以用一蹶不振来形容，Delphi也再也拿不出新东西来了，最后只能连同产品线CodeGear一起卖给名不见经传的Embarcadero公司，并最终于2009年被同样名不见经传的Micro Focus公司以7500万美元的可笑价格整体收购（CodeGear还卖了2300万美元，但原先Borland如日中天的时候，1亿美元可能都不到其一个月的营收）；并且，Java框架也受到沉重打击，当初安德斯出手做出来Visual J++以后，升阳公司感觉到巨大的威胁，于是采用流氓手段起诉，以为这样可以苟延残喘——结果像Java这种没前途的框架不攻自破，连升阳公司自己也只能卖给甲骨文了事。由此可见，以安德斯一人之力，在三大世界级软件开发工具企业之间“走一走”，结果真的是它们都要“抖三抖”，并且有两家就这么抖没了。而在全世界的软件开发人员的社区中，安德斯的名字当然是如雷贯耳。而就在今天，我有幸走进了安德斯的办公室，和他进行了一番面对面的交流。
以下的谈话记录整理凭记忆给出，尽可能地保持了原貌。
| 我： | Very glad to meet you, Anders. |
| 安： | Nice to meet you, too. |
| 我： | I notice that you are reading the book The Design of Design by Frederick Brooks. I happen to be one of the translators for that. |
| 安： | Really? To Simplified Chinese? Good to know that. I haven’t get enough time to finish it yet. How do you like the book? |
| 我： | It’s a nice book overall. The Mythical Man-Month opens my mind to recognize the engineering things in software after all, and it comes from the same author. |
| 安： | That’s very true. I am having a good expectation on this book, too. |
| 我： | Maybe I can give you a copy of the translated version in September. |
| 安： | Cool. Why not. Well we just shipped Dev10 which kept me busy for a while. |
| 我： | Yes. I heard that Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight have just been released to the manufacturer. I am still getting used to it. Since you are the designer of Pascal compiler Delphi RAD tool, and also C# programming language. What made you change your mind of moving from Pascal to C-family programming language? |
| 安： | Well it’s just a business decision and I have little choice about it. (笑) It’s majorly because that we need a language providing enough strength and less study time on it. That makes us think that we shall build our new programming language upon the C-family languages. |
| 我： | Personally I like Pascal. It provides a couple of features which C does not support, such as nested functions and procedures. |
| 安： | Yes. Pascal is good in some aspects. But in C# you can also use other powerful facilities like lambda expression. |
| 我： | Such as is in F#? |
| 安： | No, I mean lambda expressions in C#. Which you can model functions without so strongly typed out from it. |
| 我： | That’s true. I like the features which I can use to model function at runtime, as is in Javascript. |
| 安： | Yes. C# is also heavily used in web development. Also I think Silverlight will last for long, so is Flash. Although nowadays some argue that HTML will beat both Flash and Silverlight. And I agree that Silverlight will die at last. But it will take much longer than people think. And when that time comes, Silverlight and so will already go to a further step and the situation will become different. |
| 我： | Well, I think the biggest problem of Flash as well as Silverlight is that they are not search engine-friendly. People can create interactive content by using them but it’s hard for the search engines to discover them. |
| 安： | That’s very correct. But before HTML itself becomes mature we can only live with them. |
| 我： | Personally, which is the most important feature you think it is with C# 4.0? |
| 安： | I would say it is dynamic programming, which ease the programming process and makes C# a dynamic language. However, in those really big and sophisticated projects, it is no good using dynamic programming. |
| 我： | Aren’t the biggest software projects still using C or those strongly typed languages? |
| 安： | (Think for a while) Yes, those biggest projects are still composed in C-like languages without dynamic programming feature. The dynamic programming is good for composing small- and mid-sized project but for large projects it is not. |
| 我： | Anders, you are from Denmark? |
| 安： | Yes, I am. |
| 我： | It’s so happened that I first knew my girlfriend when she was in Århus University and Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++ also studied there. Is Århus your hometown? |
| 安： | No I came from København. But my father is from Århus, and I still have my family there. For some reasons, Danish creates many different programming languages. |
| 我： | I am glad to know that. Anders, will more languages be introduced into .NET framework, such as Python, Ruby and so on? |
| 安： | There is already .NET version of Python, which is IronPython. |
| 我： | But is it developed by Microsoft? As far as I remember it is developed by 3rd party? |
| 安： | Well, it is not included in Dev10, but it’s majorly sponsored by Microsoft employees. |
| 我： | I see. Thanks for your information. |
| 安： | And I don’t think there will be many languages added into the .NET framework language family. Instead, we make steps in the existing languages. |
| 我： | So there will be C# 5, 6 and more? |
| 安： | Definitely. Matt Warren and I are working on the architect of the C# programming language. |
| 我： | I am looking forward to them. And, Anders, thanks for your time and I hope to see you with my new book. |
| 安： | You’re welcome and you may drop me messages to see whether I am around. |
安德斯身材魁梧，声音宏亮，非常热情，极有大师风范。他在说话的时候，喜欢先仰头思考几秒钟。十五分钟的访谈结束以后，我向安德斯赠送了我自己的译作：《C++：99个常见编程错误》和《微软的软件测试之道》，安德斯饶有兴趣地翻看了一下，说：“Sorry I don’t understand Chinese but I am thinking of learning it.”并把它们放到了自己的书架上，看到自己写的书能放在偶像的书架上，心里就多提多高兴了。然后，我和安德斯合影留念。希望能够在The Design of Design的中文版译完以后（这里提前广告一下，本书将于2010年9月由机械工业出版社华章图书公司出版），能再来和安德斯会面，并进行更深入的交流！
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