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George
George

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The legends behind code

A recent Tweet by @ben got me thinking, there many people out there that have made massive contributions to code and computers in general. Without these people It nearly wouldn't be the same as it would be today.

Such as Grace Hopper:

Often referred to as the first women in software she designed and created the first compiler in her spare time. Additionally she was one of the first programmers to start working on the Harvard Mark I. She has done a lot in the computer science world, everything from being an Navy rear admiral, creating the compiler to creating COBOL one of the first high level programming languages ever made.

Tim Berners-Lee:

Does this man need an introduction? The reason why we're all tweeting away, facebooking and able to interact with millions of people over a computer is because this man invented the world wide web.

There are many more people that have made contributions to the technology today. Who do you think has made a significant impact for development, and tech?

Top comments (4)

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gmartigny profile image
Guillaume Martigny

I can think of Steve Wozniak or Linus Torvalds. But my all times favorite is Alan Turing. A great man that invented computer and therefore IT. Saves millions of lives and then die alone reject by his own government (spoiler alert). Watch "The Imitation Game", not a 10/10 movie, but a great history lesson.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

My first reaction is everything from these books:

One less-known legend that comes to mind is the solo maintainer of curl, who has just been plugging away for about two decades.

This is the sort of stuff solo maintainers get up to:

curl.haxx.se/mail/lib-2011-10/0059...

Hey friends,
I'm off on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. Have patience, take an extra
beer and I'll be back in the game before you know it!
Of course there are still lots of good people around who can provide help and
answer on most topics even while I'm not present.
(I might read/write some emails while away, but don't count on it!)

😄

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peter profile image
Peter Kim Frank

I recall @ben opining a while back that there should be a podcast dedicated to the open-source heroes who maintain projects for the betterment of the community. I would love to see that happen some day (and listen to it).

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rapidnerd profile image
George

I'd love to have this form of podcast around. It would be really interesting to hear.