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The Quest To Find the Longest-Serving Programmer (tnmoc.org)

Posted by msmash on from the this-is-awesome dept.

In 2014, the National Museum of Computing published a blog post in which it tried to find the person who has been programming the longest. At the time, it declared Bill Williams, a 70-year old to be one of the world's most durable programmers, who claimed to have started coding for a living in 1969 and was still doing so at the time of publication. The post has been updated several times over the years, and over the weekend, the TNMC updated it once again. The newest contender is Terry Froggatt of Hampshire, who writes: I can beat claim of your 71-year-old by a couple of years, (although I can't compete with the likes of David Hartley). I wrote my first program for the Elliott 903 in September 1966. Now at the age of 73 I am still writing programs for the Elliott 903! I've just written a 903 program to calculate the Fibonacci numbers. And I've written quite a lot of programs in the years in between, some for the 903 but also a good many in Ada.

5 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Is it just me? by lars5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did anyone else read that as "Longest-SURVIVING"?

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    Don't Panic.
  2. Thanks Computer Museum... by rnturn · · Score: 3, Funny

    These folks were perfectly happy coding and you just alerted HR departments across the country to be on the lookout for old guys to get rid of.

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    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  3. The Quest To Find the properly commented code by sinij · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Quest To Find the oldest properly commented code is still on-going. None were found so far.

  4. Re:I'm not a contender by Mark+Pitman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep

  5. Re:A contest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    and wrote my last program yesterday

    What made you decide to stop after all this time?