Submitted by “At some hot, boring afternoon I got an idea. With the help of publicly accessible e-mail adresses I asked 10 questions to a bunch of programmers that I consider very interesting people and I respect them for variuos things they created.”
“At some hot, boring afternoon I got an idea. With the help of publicly accessible e-mail adresses I asked 10 questions to a bunch of programmers that I consider very interesting people and I respect them for variuos things they created.”
Nice to see some high-profile names take time to answer these simple questions. Having the answers side by side show some interesting contrasts between the programmers with different backgrounds.
I just wish he kept the answers in the same order as the introduction.
Very nice, entertaining read. Liked Tim Bray’s answer to what is the most important skill to a programmer: “Ability to prefer evidence to intuition”. A very refreshing answer in its unromantic honesty.
I liked David Heinemeier Hansson’s reply (to a similar question): “The ability to restate hard problems as easy ones.”
As C.A.R. Hoare once said: “There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”
I liked David Heinemeier Hansson’s reply (to a similar question): “The ability to restate hard problems as easy ones.”
Yeah, it’s easy to say that… 🙂 🙂
Great programmers learn how to program their tools, not just use them. Steve Yegge
Kind of in the same way the batlif becomes part of the klingon.
is steve yegge really one of the “great” coders? i would call him a prolific and sometimes interesting blogger, but i do not know of an outstanding body of code that he wrote that is considered exceptional.
linus, yes, you are a great coder. thats not in dispute.
dave thomas? writer.
tim bray? standards guy. blogger.
guido – yes, also a great coder.
peter norvig – scientist. coder? not sure.
gosling – yes probably a great coder too, although hasn’t seem to have done much public work lately.
david hanson? sure, although i don’t think you can stand him next to linus.
i would have had on my list:
– linus
– another kernel guy, maybe from another OS
– larry wall
– guido
– audrey tang of the pugs project
– someone from mozilla
– carmak (or another video game guy)
– paul graham (blogger who actually knows a lot about code)
I would have added:
– Stroustrup
– Hejlsberg
Good call on Carmak btw.
You can add Knuth to the list for me. And Stallman, although I think his answers would just end up wrapped up in politics.
Good article, especially the irony when Linus mentions he has “a soft spot for Andrew Tanenbaum’s „Operating Systems: Design and Implementation””.
I don’t really see the irony there. That book really is an excellent operating systems text, regardless of whether or not one agrees with Tannenbaum’s particular philosophy of OS design.
Alan Kay -> Smalltalk
Carl Sassenrath -> Rebol
Yukihiro Matsumoto -> Ruby
that was a great post!
now i would have to start with discrete mathematics and writing/speaking efficiently in english, aside from the IT courses i have set to learn within the coming months.
em glad to have read it. incidentally, what i learned from it would help.
Read this blog, it’s worth it! I had some fun reading it. A must if you’re bored 😉
I enjoyed the part where Linus says Visual Basic was more important than OO
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/07/get-famous-by-not-programmi…