Great Programmers Answer Questions From Aspiring Student

NathanBFH writes "Many of the questions that make it to the Ask Slashdot pages come from young and aspiring programmers wanting to know the role math and education play in the profession, or what makes certain programmers so much more productive than others, or what the future of the craft will look like. One young programmer by the name of Jarosaw "sztywny" Rzeszótko decided to ask these types of questions (and more) to the programmers he admired the most who also, it turns out, happen to be some of the most influential computer scientists and programmers of the last several decades. The result? Most of them happily responded. The results include the following: Linus Torvalds (Linux), Bjarne Stroustrup (C++), James Gosling (Java), Tim Bray (XML, Atom), Guido Van Rossum (Python), Dave Thomas (Pragmatic Programmer), David Heinemeier Hansson (Rails Framework), and Googlers Steve Yegge and Peter Norvig."

Comments

The two biggest omissions

[Tyler Durden]

Knuth is great for his theoretical work, but I don't know if he'd rank up there as an important programmer. Although I suppose someone could make an argument for it based on his work on TeX.

The real great programmers omissions I see are Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. It's hard to top creating the most influencial programming language and the most influential OS of all time. (C and Unix, obviously).

When it comes to the OS, Thompson would be a thousand times more interesting to talk to than Torvalds.

Lots of insight in that interview

[CrazedWalrus]

That was easily one of the best interviews I've read. The questions weren't overbearing, and the guys responding were generally conscientious in their responses. Some points that really struck me as I read some of the answers:

• Communication is extremely valuable. Programming in large projects is a social activity. Good ideas must be adequately expressed, or they'll likely whither on the vine.
• A good understanding of math concepts is valuable in that they teach the programmer to think about algorithms logically and coherently, not so much for their direct usage in programming. Dave Thomas even associated a musical background with good programmers.
• Open your mind. Be a student of everything, not just technology. Read fiction, study music, be social, be curious about the world in general, and learn as much about it as possible. The best programmers tend to love learning and knowledge for their own sakes.
• Good tools allow you to make them better.
• Programmer + vague question = eggs for breakfast.
• University education *is* valuable, but one shouldn't believe they've learned everything there. Programming is an artform that is refined over time with patience and experience.
• Cultivate a sense of "value". Don't waste 90% of your time on the 5% of the work that doesn't really matter.
• Develop good "taste" in how you attack problems. This is a bit esoteric, but I think part of what Linus was referring to is what I tend to call "elegance". Don't use a lot of code where a little will do. Don't overcomplicate. Use the right tool for the job. I think the other part was actually being able to recognize this quality in the work of others. Apologies to Linus if I misunderstood.
• Don't worry about the Next Big Thing. Keep building fundamentals. When the Big Things come along, they're usually the product of lots of fundamentals put together in a creative way. More often, the future is shaped in small increments that people barely notice.

Re:I wonder....

[soliptic]

Off-topic trivia - "z" is worth 10 points in scrabble in English, but only worth 1 point in the Polish edition.