um. In the list of famous progarmmers, shouldn't ESR be credited with the sotware he created, not his ideology? um. what software did he do? -
Asa
ESR is not a famous programmer by any stretch of the imagination. He is a famous commenter and encyclopedist of the hacker movement, and hacks himself, but his programming alone certainly wouldn't have made him famous. --
AxelBoldt
Actually, I beg to differ; today he might be more famous as an advocate, but what put him in the spotlight originally and gave him the bona fides was writing
fetchmail. He's done plenty of other programming since as well. --LDC
Ok, fetchmail is a solid piece of work, no question about it, but look at the other works listed: Unix, C, gcc, perl, Linux. They seem to be a lot more substantial than fetchmail. Also consider the projects not listed: Apache, Samba, Python. I think ESR derived most of his fame from the Hacker's dictionary before the open source thing started. --
AxelBoldt
- If writing a language (C, Perl) is sufficient to be on this list, ESR goes on here just for that. He did the first INTERCAL? compiler. ;-) Seriously, though, I think he should be here. --Pinkunicorn
I agree with you AB. i think ESR should be removed. Also: did he even originate fetchmail? I thought he just carried it on for someone else? -
Asa
- ESR is a programmer who is famous, so at least technically he fits; he also fits the description on the page. Bill Gates could be counted too. I program for a living and couldn't have named the Samba guy on a bet, so I wouldn't say ESR isn't famous enough given the current set.
- Removed Samba guy. im fairly determined to keep this list kinda elite ;). -- Asa
Moved the list of famous programmers to its own page. also copied this talk to the talk on that page -
Asa
What did Hopper do? --
Asa
Grace Murray Hopper isn't famous as such for writing anything -- she was one of the earliest pioneer programmers, in the 1940s and 1950s. She was one of the first people to come up with the idea of a programming language (as opposed to writing in machine code); she developed several early programming language compilers for the UNIVAC, and she was heavily influential in the development of COBOL.
Also, I'd but Andrew Tridgell back. He's more famous as a Programmer than others still on the list: i.e. Sid Meier! He may be famous as a game designer, but not primarily as a programmer. -- Simon J Kissane
ok, cool. so i got rid of Meier too, as i was not aware of that. lets keep it to
programmers not designers or thinkers! Any other non-progamming "thinkers" in the list?--
Asa
Putting a definition of "famous" here isn't appropriate; that's just a personal opinion, so I removed it. Likewise, I put back ESR, because he is a serious programmer, and author of very influential books on the process of programming. He certainly belongs here more than Berners-Lee does. I don't think quibbling over who belongs here and who doesn't is at all useful. This isn't a popularity contest, it's just a list of links people might want to know about. I'd put Bentley and Kernihan here too, as influential authors. Just because the software they wrote was not something the public used, they are hardcore master programmers and influential in the field. --LDC
Well, in that case Bill Gates should be on the list, because he *was* a programmer (twenty or more years ago, of course) and he *is* famous, and people *would* be interested in his bio.
While we're naming names, how about Dave Cutler (lead designer of VMS and Windows NT, if I recall correctly). Tim Patterson (who wrote what became MS-DOS), maybe?
Cutler was already there. I added Gates, Bricklin, Wozniak, and Kapor. I don't know much about Patterson. --LDC
Another name we should add - Ada Lovelace, who worked with Charles Babbage on the design of the Analytical Engine, and designed a bunch of programs for the machine before Robert Merkel
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)