Stroustrup - the greatest in Software Industry?

[tompa1969]

Help vote for our father of the master language as the greatest in the
software industry!
http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=47349&page=35

[Bob Hairgrove]

On 12 Dec 2004 04:45:13 -0800, to*******@yahoo.com wrote:

Help vote for our father of the master language as the greatest in the
software industry!
http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=47349&page=35

I would like to, but unfortunately you cannot take such a list
seriously when people like Dijkstra, Donald Knuth, Niklaus Wirth, E.F.
Codd, Larry Wall and many others of their stature are not even among
the top forty.

Instead, among some who are really outstanding and deserve such an
award (such as Bjarne Stroustrup), we get to choose from a list which
includes people such as Stewart Brand, Larry Brilliant and Ann
Winblad. Although they are also outstanding achievers, their
credentials seem to be in some other field only indirectly related to
computer technology. They seem to be more like successful business
persons who incidentally became successful because of the internet.
Whoever put the list together was probably not unbiased since most of
the more glaring omissions were already famous before the onset of the
internet.

Too bad. But I think I will vote for B.S. anyway, just to help make
sure that he and not some of the questionable candidates make it to
the top.

--
Bob Hairgrove
No**********@Home.com

[tompa1969]

>I would like to, but unfortunately you cannot take such a

list seriously when people like Dijkstra, Donald Knuth,
Niklaus Wirth, E.F. Codd, Larry Wall and many others
of their stature are not even among the top forty.

Instead, among some who are really outstanding and
deserve such an award (such as Bjarne Stroustrup), we
get to choose from a list which includes people such as
Stewart Brand, Larry Brilliant and Ann Winblad. Although
they are also outstanding achievers, their credentials
seem to be in some other field only indirectly related to
computer technology. They seem to be more like
successful business persons who incidentally became
successful because of the internet.
very well said!
Too bad. But I think I will vote for B.S. anyway, just to
help make sure that he and not some of the questionable
candidates make it to the top.

i vote for bs for the exact same reason and that is also the
reason i sent the request to this list.

[tompa1969]

>I would like to, but unfortunately you cannot take such a

list seriously when people like Dijkstra, Donald Knuth,
Niklaus Wirth, E.F. Codd, Larry Wall and many others
of their stature are not even among the top forty.

Instead, among some who are really outstanding and
deserve such an award (such as Bjarne Stroustrup), we
get to choose from a list which includes people such as
Stewart Brand, Larry Brilliant and Ann Winblad. Although
they are also outstanding achievers, their credentials
seem to be in some other field only indirectly related to
computer technology. They seem to be more like
successful business persons who incidentally became
successful because of the internet.
very well said!
Too bad. But I think I will vote for B.S. anyway, just to
help make sure that he and not some of the questionable
candidates make it to the top.

i vote for bs for the exact same reason and that is also the
reason i sent the request to this list.

[Jonathan Turkanis]

Bob Hairgrove wrote:

On 12 Dec 2004 04:45:13 -0800, to*******@yahoo.com wrote:

Help vote for our father of the master language as the greatest in
the software industry!
http://www.sys-con.com/story/?storyid=47349&page=35

I would like to, but unfortunately you cannot take such a list
seriously when people like Dijkstra, Donald Knuth, Niklaus Wirth, E.F.
Codd, Larry Wall and many others of their stature are not even among
the top forty.

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Jonathan

[jcoffin]

[ ... ]

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Alan Turing _does_ seem to be on the list, which actually makes things
worse in a way: other than him, the list seems to consist primarily of
people still living and more or less active. Given his presence on the
list, how is it reasonable to omit the likes of Ada Lovelace, Robert
Floyd or William Friedman?

Unfortunately, a magazine has an inherent conflict of interest here:
their business consists of publishing new things on a regular basis,
but a well-run contest would produce results that changed only
relatively rarely.

This, of course, begs the question of whether the current list of
nominees resulted from ignorance or dishonesty. Then again, the answer
to that may not matter a whole lot -- though I guess we can hope that
either way the JDJ is an inaccurate relfection of the Java community as
a whole (and perhaps it can provide sufficient indication of the
quality of the JDJ to save somebody some money they might have
otherwise wasted on it).

--
Later,
Jerry.

The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

[Jonathan Turkanis]

jc*****@taeus.com wrote:

[ ... ]

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Alan Turing _does_ seem to be on the list,

hmm... you're right. I must have missed him.

Jonathan

[Dave O'Hearn]

jc*****@taeus.com wrote:

[ ... ]

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Alan Turing _does_ seem to be on the list, which actually makes
things worse in a way: other than him, the list seems to consist
primarily of people still living and more or less active. Given his
presence on the list, how is it reasonable to omit the likes of Ada
Lovelace, Robert Floyd or William Friedman?

Alan Turing does not really belong on the list, since it is
specifically about software, not information technology in general. Ada
Lovelace would have been a better choice, if the creators of this list
feel compelled to leave one slot open for somebody historically
significant. Still, I don't think the concept of "software" as opposed
to "programming" existed back then.

The list feels like a waste. It could have been an educational
opportunity, to point out actual steps forward in software and who some
of the major names involved were. For example, I would have liked to
learn who was responsibe for the concept of dynamic linking. Also, the
list has no entries related to either COM or CORBA. Odd. And they
credit Brian Kernighan for creating AWK and AMPL, but leave out the
general work in Bell Labs of composing software out of independent
parts, and piping, which is surely more significant.

--
Dave O'Hearn

[Bob Hairgrove]

On 13 Dec 2004 00:14:45 -0800, "Dave O'Hearn" <da******@pobox.com>
wrote:

list has no entries related to either COM or CORBA. Odd.

Don Box is on the list. He wrote "Essential COM".

--
Bob Hairgrove
No**********@Home.com

[Default User]

to*******@yahoo.com wrote:

Help vote for our father of the master language as the greatest in the
software industry!

These things are stupid and a waste of time. What point to on-line
popularity polls? They they tell you nothing substantive about anything.

Brian

[Dave O'Hearn]

Bob Hairgrove wrote:

Dave O'Hearn <da******@pobox.com> wrote:

list has no entries related to either COM or CORBA. Odd.

Don Box is on the list. He wrote "Essential COM".

Yes. I own the book, and it is great. :) But Don Box had nothing to do
with the invention of COM; he is just great at explaining it.

The list seems to be mostly about current big names, not people who
actually made innovations in software. Some on the list did, but most
did not really. If it weren't for the oddness of including Alan Turing,
as a claim to some sort of historical significance, I could almost
forgive it all.

--
Dave O'Hearn

[Frank Looper]

> Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Jonathan

Look again

[Jonathan Turkanis]

Frank Looper wrote:

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Jonathan

Look again

Thanks, but I could say the same thing:

Jonathan Turkanis wrote: jc*****@taeus.com wrote:

[ ... ]

Not to mention Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church or Alan Turing.

Alan Turing _does_ seem to be on the list,

hmm... you're right. I must have missed him.

Jonathan