5 ms·
The Writings of Leslie Lamport
- astn-austin 6y agoWell now here go with the good coffee shop reading!
- mikhailfranco 6y agoMathematical papers seem to require coffee for their production [1] and their consumption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfr%C3%A9d_R%C3%A9nyi#Quotations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfr%C3%A9d_R%C3%A9nyi#Quotati...
- kaymanb 6y agoThe comments, anecdotes, and historical context he gives the papers are by themselves a great read, especially if you're even somewhat familiar with the results. The comments on #12, which introduces the Bakery Algorithm [1] are a great example of this. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport%27s_bakery_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport%27s_bakery_algorithm
- emmelaich 6y agoThere are great bits in the papers, too. For instance in the Buridan paper ... > An empirical absence of dead asses does not invalidate Buridan’s Principle
- ahelwer 6y agoI actually read through all of these (the summaries, not the papers) in the process of writing the TLA+ wikipedia article. Some favorites: * On the oft-misunderstood significance of the bakery algorithm: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#bakery https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#bakery * On submitting an algorithm with a bug in it, thus arousing interest in verifying concurrent algorithms (culminating decades later in the development of TLA+): https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#proving https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#proving * On how nobody has actually read his most famous paper (Time, Clocks...): https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#time-clocks https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#time-clocks * Hanging out, drinking beer at Dijkstra's house: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#new-approach https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#new-approac... * On creating the first (impractical) digital signature algorithm: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#dig-sig https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#dig-sig * A several-times-rejected paper which then became one of the most cited in the field of temporal logic: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#sometime https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#sometime * A lifelong source of fascination, the arbiter problem: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#buridan https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#buridan * The creation of LaTeX: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#latex https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#latex * On presenting the first paxos paper in an Indiana Jones outfit, to widespread incomprehension: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-paxos https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-pax... I'll stop here because basically every single summary is fun and worth reading.
- User23 6y agoThis reminds me very much of the Dijkstra archive[1]. I look forward to reading all of these as I did with those (the Dutch language ones excepted). [1] https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/
- btrettel 6y agoThis page make me want to write some narratives about my own papers. Maybe I wouldn't release the narratives, but Lamport's page made me realize how much detail is lost to time. The context of the papers is interesting and maybe even relevant to the research.
- onemoresoop 6y agoInteresting how that makes me think of state in programming. Maybe theres a way to encapsulate state in these papers to capture as much as possible from the context.
- redis_mlc 6y agoIf you're more into web design than math, check out that spartan HTML ... it's pre-Geocities, if that's possible. Didn't know that the title element would render fine even inside body!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mjb 6y ago"What Good is Temporal Logic?" (https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#what-good https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html#what-good) is in the running for my favorite CS paper. Well worth reading, and understandable even if you have a passing familiarity with predicate logic.