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The World's Best Living Programmers

Posted by timothy on from the yeah-but-do-you-have-his-rookie-card? dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "How do you measure success? If it's by Stack Overflow reputation, Google engineer Jon Skeet is the world's best programmer. If it's winning programming competitions, Gennady Korotkevich or Petr Mitrechev might be your pick. But what about Linus Torvalds? Or Richard Stallman? Or Donald Knuth? ITworld's Phil Johnson has rounded up a list of what just might be the world's top 14 programmers alive today."

9 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. How would you know? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You only know if you get to see their code, and/or if they are a public figure.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Github Followers by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you go by Github followers, Linus is pretty up-there. Linus and Stallman aren't great just for their programming abilities; their capability to manage their projects so effectively is a huge factor in their success.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Github Followers by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Being a good programmer is orthogonal with being a good manager

      I strongly disagree, assuming by "manager" we mean "team leader" rather than "HR manager".

      Being an outstanding lone wolf programmer is of value, but significant projects are almost never single-person efforts. Real top programmers also have to be able to lead people.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  3. Stack Overflow reputation by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stack Overflow reputation indicates that you're a 1337 documentation writer, not necessarily that you know how to program.

  4. Not exhaustive as it misses some big names... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Marissa Mayer former innovator at Google and now CEO of Yahoo. She is well known for making Google Maps useful.
    Brian Kernighan co-inventor of C.
    Bjarne Stroustrup inventor of C++.

    I would put a few of my picks above some of the names on that list.

    1. Re:Not exhaustive as it misses some big names... by beernutz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kernighan for SURE, but is Marissa Mayer really a programmer?

      --
      (stolen from DaBum) I am dyslexia of borg - your ass will be laminated.
  5. Re:No exhaustive.. by SirGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ken Thompson - Also creator of the C Programming Language.

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    UPS Sucks
  6. Re:it's just a popularity contest by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More importantly, where is there code? How can you know if they are good programmers if you've never seen their code?

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  7. Re:No exhaustive.. by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Kernighan wasn't involved until much later, according to Ritchie's own history of the language. C was a direct successor to B, which was Thompson's brainchild, and he was directly involved in much of the development of C, though Ritchie was the lead on it.

    People often assume it was Kernighan and Ritchie because they co-authored the seminal book on the language (the eponymous K&R white book), but that book didn't even get published until almost 6 years after C was already complete.