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Top Ten Software Innovators?
Rsriram asks: "At our company we have named some of the conference rooms with names of software innovators. The names include Ken Thompson, Donald Knuth, Ada Lovelace, Dennis Ritchie. We need to name 10 more rooms and I was wondering who Slashdot readers would think are the top ten software innovators. Not computer hardware but software. I was thinking Von Neumann, and Linus Torvalds would find a mention, What about Watts Humphrey?"
Your choice about linus is a good one, what can you say bar he has even Microsoft flapping...maybe deviating a bit but Richard Stallman? He and the FSF group have had a lasting effect on software...i'd class that as good reason :)
"What do you mean you have no ice? Do you expect me to drink this coffee hot?" - Random Customer, Clerks
Linus and Stallman would be definites... and, shoot, what is the name of the Mozilla guy?
If you wanted to go more "classical" you could do people like Blaise Pascal or Dikstra or even Turning.
My personal favorite: Dijkstra
. Not computer hardware but software. I was thinking Von Neumann, and Linus Torvalds would find a mention
Linus Torvalds should not be on such a list. Tananbaum was wrong to say that Linux is obsolete, but he was correct that it is of little academic interest. Linus' skill is not in innovation, it is in execution and dare I say it, project management.
Von Nuemann and the others you mentioned were theorists, people on the science side of computer science, who developed new theories. They changed the way people think about the whole field.
He wrote the first web browser and server
How about the guys who codified design patterns in the classic Design Patterns book? While I don't think you would really want to take up four of your rooms with each of their names you could just call it the Gang of Four room.
You could also nominate James Gosling the Java guy. While I wouldn't really call Java all that innovative it has had a revolutionary impact like Larry Wall and Perl. I think you would more want names that when people say, "what did they guy who this room is named after do?" and you tell them to look it up they will be better coders for it. Thats why I nominate the Gang of Four name.
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Here's a brief profile on Apple.com: http://www.apple.com/creative/stories/atkinson/
No sig? Sigh...
I aggree, why did Linus make it into the list 'modern saints' instead of RMS.
Sure Linus has done a fine job, but RMS's contribution is GPL and the FSF which is far greater (and more saintly).
RMS has been the most effective libertarian of modern times, people say what if the Nazis had won the war, well what if RMS hadn't have bothered.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Dave Cutler, architect of RSX-11, VMS, and Windows NT. (For better and worse, in that order!)
Not to be politically correct, but I think Rear Admiral Grace Hopper should definitly be on the list. After all she wrote the first compiler, A-O, then the successor FLOW-Matic, which then lead to COBOL. You can get a really good idea of all of her contributions to programming here.
I think that you should include Gary Kildall before any of the people that are alive. You can check more on: http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/kilda ll.html
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Ted Nelson, inventor of hypertext and hypermedia.
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Johanson didn't really break CSS. He found a private key in his Windows DVD software.
CSS was later broken by someone else.