Top Twenty Software guys?
So I see where Sys-Con has a list of the top twenty software developers. It's a bogus list - notably absent from consideration? Donald Knuth and Alan Kay. Some of the people on the list haven't really created anything - they've merely cobbled together other peoples ideas - and badly at that. So who put together this list? Why the heck are Kay and Knuth absent? What about people like Grace Hopper?
Comments
Yea, Ann Winblad vs Grace Hopper
[Eric] December 11, 2004 15:44:14.769
James,
I couldn't agree more; very poor attempt...
Eric
Personalities
[Patrick Logan] December 11, 2004 16:18:45.992
Like "top ten anything" it is biased towards more widely recognized contemporary personalities than on any deep understanding of the field. Kind of like the magazine itself I suspect. I'm not familiar with it.
Personality
[Ian Bicking] December 11, 2004 16:37:20.663
Yeah, it looks like a personality-based top-20. Which isn't to say they aren't good programmers, but leads to some flukes, like O'Reilly (huh?).
FWIW, though, Alan Kay is doing a bad job getting his ideas out. Which is weird, since it's not that he isn't trying. There's a lot of writing about Kay on the web, but very little by him. From what I can tell, he doesn't even have a web page; "Alan Kay" on Google produces 10 biographies. These days primary sources are the norm. I think his ideas are being overlooked as a result.
Knuth and Kay
[bryan ] December 11, 2004 17:51:07.244
disliking tex, metafont, and literate programming i can't say I mind not seeing Knuth represented, other than of course that I think the informed consensus would be that he should be represented, but damn, leaving Kay out is a crime.
Top Twenty Software guys?
[ Vincent Foley] December 11, 2004 19:51:07.945
Comment by Vincent Foley
Ian: I completely agree, Alan Kay should have a blog or something. People should be able to know hwat he's up to, they should read his opinions about the opinions of others, his opinions regarding software, etc.
Kay's ideas?
[Arthur Siegel] December 12, 2004 9:01:45.419
Disney's pseudo-education site had made available the video of a presentation by Kay to an auditorium full of educators convened by Disney while Kay was "on staff".
Kay as a developer, and Kay as a man of ideas, must be different things. I found the presentation, for want of a better word, silly. It didn't even have the advantage of being innocuous, given the esteenm in which he is held by many. Ideas-in-process - representing more hope than actuality - taken too seriously, is not a good thing.
I will give him the benefit of doubt, by giving him credit for perhaps having some doubt about some of the ideas with which he is most identified.
Which would be good reason for him deciding to maintain a lower profile while he refactors a bit.
ACKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!
[J Pfersich] December 13, 2004 2:34:22.408
Bjarne Stroustrup has, at this point, the most votes I could find in that list of "personalities". So the title sums it up for me.
"Top Software People" List Vastly Expanded
[jeremy geelan] December 14, 2004 18:06:57.693
Who's Missing From SYS-CON's i-Technology Top Twenty?
Our Search for the Top Twenty Software People in the World Produces 60 More Good Candidates
No sooner had we begun our reader-driven quest for the top twenty software people in the world than - by popular acclaim, as they say - we're going to extend the field to choose from...from forty to over a hundred.
Here we bring you a sneak peek at the sixty contenders that we'll be adding now to the poll, with thanks to everyone who has proferred suggestions. Even 100 won't do this subject justice, but it will be interesting to see how the i-Technology community decides to rank them, when voting on this new, expanded group begins tomorrow.