Jon Bentley

Author of the "Programming Pearls" column in the Communications of the ACM, which was the source of several outstanding books:

• ProgrammingPearls ISBN 0-201-10331-1
• MoreProgrammingPearls ISBN 0-201-11889-0

Member of technical staff at BellLabs. mailto:jlb@research.bell-labs.com (out of date)

One of my favorite "Programming Pearls" was that on LittleLanguages [Jon Bentley, Little languages, Communications of the ACM, 29(8):711 -- 21, August 1986. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=315691]

• Does he have a website? (Both of these are 404, Nov 2014)
  • He's listed on http://www.research.avayalabs.com/PeopleY/people_a_to_eY.html, ~~but I don't see a home page.~~
  • Here's his Avaya page: http://www.avaya.com/usa/avaya-labs/people/jon-bentleyresearch-scientist

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In the appendix to the first edition of Programming Pearls, he gives out ten pieces of engineering advice:

• Work on the right problem.
• Explore the design space of solutions.
• Look at the data.
• Use the back of the envelope.
• Exploit symmetry.
• Design with components.
• Build prototypes.
• Make trade-offs when you have to.
• Keep it simple.
• Strive for elegance.