Perhaps no one is going to say it, so I'll say it: The nonchalant font makes these slides easy and fun to read.
Also, for who are not in the know, Simon Peyton Jones is a well respected computer scientist, mostly known for his work on developing the functional programming language Haskell (together with others ofcourse), Haskell research is funded for a large part by Microsoft I think.
Ha, I remember seeing him talk at a conference in 1991 and it was hand-written transparencies on an overhead projector. Comic Sans is a relief. :-)
Also, to add what others have said, he is one of the best speakers I've ever been lucky enough to see in person: SPJ, Philip Wadler, Guy Steele... good company.
Yep, he once asked if there was anything he should change about this talk - I said get rid of the Comic Sans, but keep the casual feel. This was in 2010. You know that a is talk finely tuned when the only thing someone can think to change is the font!
It's also great advice. I especially liked the part at the end about using simple and direct language and the active voice. This alone makes a paper much easier to digest even if the subject matter is hard.
Precisely because he's that respected, I was surprised at the font choice, which I disliked (it just seems to mean extra mental effort for me over something I'm more used to).
He has said elsewhere, in response to questions about his choice of fonts:
This is a very funny question, why I use Comic Sans. So. All my talks use
Comic Sans, and I frequently see little remarks, “Simon Peyton Jones, great
talk about Haskell, but why did he use Comic Sans?” But nobody’s ever been
able to tell me what’s wrong with it. I think it’s a nice, legible font, I
like it. So until someone explains to me — I understand that it’s meant to be
naff, but I don't care about naff stuff, it’s meant to be able to read it. So
if you’ve got some rational reasons why I should not, then I’ll listen to them.
But just being unfashionable, I don’t care.
Comments
Perhaps no one is going to say it, so I'll say it: The nonchalant font makes these slides easy and fun to read.
Also, for who are not in the know, Simon Peyton Jones is a well respected computer scientist, mostly known for his work on developing the functional programming language Haskell (together with others ofcourse), Haskell research is funded for a large part by Microsoft I think.
I think that at some point, he used to use Comic Sans but everyone got a aneurysm so he switched.
Ha, I remember seeing him talk at a conference in 1991 and it was hand-written transparencies on an overhead projector. Comic Sans is a relief. :-)
Also, to add what others have said, he is one of the best speakers I've ever been lucky enough to see in person: SPJ, Philip Wadler, Guy Steele... good company.
Yep, he once asked if there was anything he should change about this talk - I said get rid of the Comic Sans, but keep the casual feel. This was in 2010. You know that a is talk finely tuned when the only thing someone can think to change is the font!
So now he's using a font that makes it look like he's had an aneurysm? Brilliant!
(I probably shouldn't be making any handwriting/typography comments.)
He had an aneurysm, which caused him to choose comic sans. He had a second aneurysm which caused him to choose that thing he's got on there now.
It's also great advice. I especially liked the part at the end about using simple and direct language and the active voice. This alone makes a paper much easier to digest even if the subject matter is hard.
Precisely because he's that respected, I was surprised at the font choice, which I disliked (it just seems to mean extra mental effort for me over something I'm more used to).
He has said elsewhere, in response to questions about his choice of fonts:
he also has enough research experience that it's not taken as unprofessional