morgan (@CasualEffects) / X

morgan

23K posts

morgan

@CasualEffects

Roblox Chief Scientist U.Waterloo & McGill Prof. @morgan3d.bsky Known for NVIDIA, Unity, Graphics Codex, Markdeep, G3D, Skylanders, E Ink, Titan Quest, Williams

Ontario, Canada

Joined January 2012

morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
It wasn't until I'd *taught* algorithms a few times that I finally understood why sorting is in the CS curriculum. Unfortunately, most curricula don't explain this! It is NOT because sorting is an important algorithm to learn to implement...
Ryan Winchester
@ryanwinchester
Jun 23, 2023
As a 41 year-old software developer do you know how many times I've had to manually implement QuickSort? Zero. Maybe we should test for more useful skills like taking a slow SQL query and optimizing it.
1.5M
morgan
@CasualEffects
May 6, 2021
GIF
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jan 18, 2019
Human latency
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
Replying to @CasualEffects
By using different sort algorithms as a running example, we can cover ideas such as: - Asymptotic analysis - Space vs. time tradeoffs - Best case vs. worst case vs. expected case behavior - Functional vs. imperative implementations - Explicit stack vs. recursive implementations
129K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
Replying to @CasualEffects
We teach sorting in algorithms classes because it is a simple and easy to motivate EXAMPLE of different algorithms for accomplishing the same task. The solution isn't the point in the classroom. The problem is the point...
103K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Apr 16, 2021
The @Roblox metaverse connects 100s of millions of players in millions of games, with consistent personas. As Chief Scientist, I'm now leading computer-, data-, and social-science research to continue Roblox's innovation for coexperience, creativity, safety, and digital civility.
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
Replying to @CasualEffects
In conclusion, the point of the sorting lectures you had in college was the lessons you learned along the way, not the sorting. I'm really sorry we didn't tell you that at the time!
101K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Apr 19, 2021
I'm excited to announce in partnership with the @nvidia Deep Learning Institute that the Graphics Codex is now a free online computer graphics rendering and ray tracing textbook at graphicscodex.courses.nvidia.com The programming projects run everywhere and are accelerated on RTX GPUs.
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
Replying to @CasualEffects
- Stable vs. unstable - Adversarial cases - Concurrency As a bonus, we can also point out that if you give your algorithm a cool name like "QuickSort", then generations of programmers will naively assume that it is the fastest sorting algorithm and use it...
78K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jul 10, 2023
Note that Roblox uses the Right Handed, Y=Up 3D category. It matches the intuition you probably have from learning coordinates when graphing in school, follows my favorite textbooks, and plays nice with cross products: X × Y = Z; Y × Z = X; Z × X = Y.
272K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
Replying to @CasualEffects
As a professor, scientist, programmer, game developer, etc. what sorting algorithm do I use? WHATEVER SORT IS IN MY STANDARD LIBRARY ...
64K
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jan 30, 2018
regexper.com just changed my programming life. Suddenly regexps aren't write-only expressions...
morgan
@CasualEffects
Dec 1, 2020
I'm now Director of Hyperscale Graphics Systems research at NVIDIA! And my team is hiring PhD interns and senior scientist/engineer positions right now (thread):
morgan
@CasualEffects
Jun 23, 2023
I'm amazed that the debugging experience circa 2000 in C++ with Visual Studio or CodeWarrior (or even xgdb) was more sophisticated than now with Python, JavaScript, and various GPU languages. We're really back to working with "printf" a lot instead of visual debugging.
135K