IT women: the most famous female programmers and their contribution to history. Famous and great computer scientists and programmers
Attention! The opinions of the people answering the question may not coincide with the opinions of the editors.
Who do you consider to be the best programmer of all time?
MITCH RHYS-JONES
programmer
“DONALD WHIP.
He is known for his monograph “The Art of Programming,” which consists of several volumes. It contains detailed descriptions of everything from data structures and random numbers to sorting, enumeration, and analysis of algorithms - a direction for which he laid the foundations. In all his books, he gave examples written in assembly language - machine commands. Here's what Bill Gates said about this monograph: “If you think you're a good programmer, read Knuth's The Art of Programming. If you can read it all, be sure to send me a resume.”
Knuth began working on the monograph in 1962 and has completed four volumes to date. The fifth volume will appear in 2020, which means it will take him 58 years to complete the five volumes. But he is going to write two more. And this is not to mention the fact that he created TeX, one of the most widespread computer layout systems, the METAFONT language for developing vector fonts, as well as the WEB and CWEB competent programming systems. He has been awarded the John von Neumann Medal, the Franklin Medal, the Turing Award and the US National Medal of Science. For his work on The Art of Programming, he was even given the title of Professor Emeritus of the Art of Programming."
programmer
"Anders Hejlsberg.
He wrote the Pascal compiler in assembly language for the two dominant operating systems of the time, DOS and CPM. The compiler was later included in the Turbo Pascal integrated development environment. Thanks to it, compiling, linking and running a program began to take seconds instead of minutes.
Heilsberg's compiler was bought by Borland International, which also hired the programmer. Borland sold the compiler along with a full development environment for much less money than its competitors. Thanks to Heilsberg, the productivity of programmers has increased significantly. Then I was so impressed by his work that I even wrote a book Using Turbo Pascal, first published in 1986. It can still be found on Amazon and eBay.
Anders Hejlsberg led the team that created Borland Delphi (Object Pascal), which was as fast as Turbo Pascal. Delphi currently ranks 11th in the TIOBE ranking of programming languages and development environments. Hejlsberg later went to work for Microsoft, where he led the development of C#, which is now ranked 5th in the TIOBE rankings.”
RAVI KUMAR
student
"Linus Torvalds.
Creator of Linux. Everyone knows that he can program better than Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. In such a high-pressure, paranoid, money-making industry, no one could have foreseen the release of Linux, a free and open operating system that was the result of the collaboration of many programmers. He also created the Git file version control system and the professional diving program Subsurface.
James Gosling.
Creator of the Java language, which is used all over the world. Based on the PostScript page description language interpreter, he developed the Network Extensible Windowing System (NEWS), which distributes computing across the network. He worked on everything: ground-based analysis of telemetry from the ISIS 2 satellite, and the first version of the Emacs text editor for Unix, and much more.
Richard Stallman.
Founder of the Free Software Foundation and founder of the open source movement, one of the most important figures in the history of information technology. He worked on the GPL, the world's most widely used license, including Linux, as well as the GCC compiler suite, the Emacs text editor, and other open source software."
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On September 13, the professional holiday of programmers is celebrated all over the world. This is the 256th day of the year, chosen as an eight-bit byte symbol to express an identical number of values. In Russia, Programmer's Day became an official holiday in 2009.
In the photo: British mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Byron, considered the creator of the world's first program and description of a computer. The project itself was eventually developed by British mathematician Charles Babbage.
John von Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician, made important contributions to many branches of science, such as quantum physics, functional analysis and computer science. The name of von Neumann is associated with the architecture of most modern computers, which involves joint storage of programs and data for them in the memory of a computer.
Computer specialist Dennis Ritchie is known for his participation in the creation of the BCPL, B, C programming languages, and the ALTRAN extension for the FORTRAN programming language. The C and FORTRAN languages have gained wide popularity in applied problems, and many later programming languages have been developed on the basis of the C language. Also, Ritchie participated in the development of the Multics and UNIX operating systems.
Björn Stroustrup is the author of the C++ programming language, one of the most widely used programming languages developed on the basis of C. Stroustrup pioneered the use of object-oriented programming, which allows you to create large-scale projects in a short time by distributing tasks between participants and using previously developed solutions . Several modern programming languages have been developed based on C++.
The founder of the free software movement, the GNU (General Public License) project, founded in 1983, as well as the free software foundation and the League for Programming Freedom was the American Richard Stallman. Among his inventions is also the concept of “copyleft”.
Alexey Pajitnov is a Soviet programmer and inventor of the world famous and beloved game "Tetris". From 1996 to 2005, Pajitnov worked at Microsoft, where he developed Pandora's Box puzzles. In 2007 and 2009, he was awarded the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award.
Along with famous programmers and hackers - Linus Torvalds. Linus created Linux - the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, which is currently the most common free operating system.
The Android operating system, which is the most widespread OS for smartphones in the world, is built on the Linux kernel.
Apple co-founder and American computer developer Steve Wozniak is rightfully considered one of the fathers of the personal computer revolution in the 1970s. Wozniak founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976 and developed both software and hardware for the early computers.
One of the richest people on the planet, inventor, programmer and businessman Bill Gates forever entered the history of computer technology as the founder and largest shareholder of Microsoft. At the age of thirteen, Bill wrote his first program, the Tic Tac Toe game, in the BASIC programming language.
Evgeny Kaspersky is a Russian programmer, information security specialist, one of the founders, leading developer and largest shareholder of Kaspersky Lab CJSC. He is also a laureate of the state prize in the field of science and technology for 2008.
This year, one of the co-founders of the search company Yandex, Ilya Segalovich, passed away. The Russian programmer, director of technology and development, as well as an active participant and organizer of assistance to orphans and sick children, died on July 23, 2013.
Time magazine's Person of the Year 2010, the youngest billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is the creator of the world famous and extremely popular social network Facebook. During his school years, Mark developed an online version of the game "Risk". After turning down job offers from AOL and Microsoft, he began working on the largest social network in the world with Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskowitz.
The co-founder of the social network VKontakte, Pavel Durov, while still studying at St. Petersburg State University, was developing non-profit Internet projects designed to improve the quality of social and scientific life of the university. The VKontakte project is also his own work.
In 1992, Boris Nuraliev, together with his brother Sergei Nuraliev, created the 1C accounting program. In 1996, the company he headed released the 1C:Enterprise system and began developing computer games. In 2005, the 1C company became one of the three leaders in the Russian market of integrated enterprise management systems.
Linus Torvalds, Donald Knuth, Richard Stallman, John Carmack - if not a name, then a legend. The online publication VentureBeat lists the most authoritative programmers in the global IT community.
Linus Torvalds
Created Linux, a free operating system, in a dorm room at the University of Helsinki. Today, data centers and supercomputers run on Linux, and it is developed by a horde of open-source fans around the world.
Torvalds is known, in particular, for the fact that he does not mince words and does not try to please the public. At one of his recent talks, when he was asked from the audience whether he was scaring off members of the Linux community with his manner of communication, he replied: “I don’t give a damn about you.” There are the same jokes about Torvalds among developers as there are among ordinary people about Chuck Norris. For example, Torvalds can divide by zero and play 3D games by executing their source code in his mind in real time.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
The only one on this list who managed to earn a knighthood was knighted by the British Queen Elizabeth II. He is the creator of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the technology on which the entire Internet is built.
He now heads the Alliance for Affordable Internet, a public organization backed by Google, Facebook and Microsoft that aims to make broadband Internet accessible to people around the world.
Donald Knuth
His academic work in computer science earned him the title "Father of Algorithm Analysis". Everything on the Internet, from the algorithm for selecting Facebook feeds to the algorithm for selecting similar products on Amazon, owes something to it. At 77, he is writing a book called The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth is also a professor emeritus at Stanford.
Brendan Ike
Creator of the JavaScript programming language, which in fact is the standard for web programming. Participated in the creation of Mozilla, the company that develops the Firefox browser. He resigned as CEO when his financial support for a project to ban gay marriage in California became known.
Solomon Hikes
Creator of Docker, a technology that developers love because it packages an application and its entire environment into containers and delivers it to servers. Works like a virtual machine, but much faster. Docker began as a side-project at dotCloud, but when the product turned out to be popular, the company experienced a pivot and soon became a unicorn.
Mark Zuckerberg
Creator of Facebook. Believes that the smaller and more flexible the team, the more successful it will be. The billion-dollar social network is served by “only” 10,000 people around the world.
David Heinemeier Hansson
Known as DHH. Creator of Ruby on Rails, a super popular framework that earned him the title and Google Hacker of the Year award in 2005.
Richard Stallman
He is known primarily for his fight for free software, the founder of GNU, the author of the idea of “copyleft” - as opposed to copyright. Very principled, does not use any proprietary developments.
Bram Cohen
The creator of the BitTorrent protocol, which gave users the ability to download files super fast. BitTorrent is incredibly popular, with a conservative estimate of its total user base at 250 million people worldwide. Last year, Thom Yorke tried to distribute the album exclusively through BitTorrent. And yet, the capabilities of BitTorrent were primarily appreciated by Internet pirates.
James Gosling
Created the Java programming language while working at Sun Microsystems. After Oracle's takeover in 2010, Gosling left, becoming one of Oracle's main critics. Since then, he worked for five months at Google until he joined the startup Liquid Robotics. He is also part of the team of the famous Ukrainian startup Jelastic as an independent director.
Björn Stroustrup
The Danish programmer created the C++ programming language in 1978, improving C. He is still actively working: he teaches at Texas A&M University, Columbia University, and is also employed at Morgan Stanley.
John Carmack
Co-founder of id Software. He is known all over the world as the creator of Doom. By the way, the idea for the game itself was born during a game of D&D, which the team held regularly at id Software headquarters for several years. Moreover, John was always the game master. He was the first to try out 3D graphics tricks that are still used today.
He is currently working at Oculus VR, which Facebook bought for $2 billion.
Silicon Valley today excites the minds of the whole world. Children used to want to become astronauts, now they dream of being programmers. Life without computers is impossible, this area is developing not only every year, but every month, the need for personnel is enormous. And at the same time, almost 99% of programmers are men. Representatives of the stronger sex say that computers are difficult, painstaking, and require a special mindset and logic that a woman cannot comprehend. Few of these men know that they owe their profession to a girl. Moreover, the history of science knows many turning points related to computers in which women played a key role. We will tell you about the most outstanding pioneers and female programmers.It is impossible to talk about programming in isolation from this personality, mind you, women. It's simple, computers and programs would not exist if it weren't for this lady. The only daughter of the poet George Byron and Anna Byron, oddly enough, did not take over her father’s poetic gift. She was little concerned about the flair and trepidation of the muse. In this family it was the other way around. The girl had a passion for the harmonious logic of mathematics, like her mother.Ada was born in 1815, when a woman scientist was as rare in the world as divorce among the nobility. That didn’t stop her parents from getting a divorce soon after the baby was born. Byron saw her only once, because he soon left England forever. Mother Anna took up raising her daughter with all zeal. The best mathematicians of that time taught for her.
Ada was lucky in life. That time dictated that a woman of her position should marry some lord and give birth to his children, taking care of everyday life. It is now . But in her youth, the girl did not want to vegetate in marriage; she just met the creator of the first computer - the prototype of the current computer. Babbage gave lectures, and Ada was asked to translate them for a foreigner. She spent a lot of her time on the work, reworking and filling in the gaps in Babbage's scientific thought in the process. Her recordings are an example of the first programming.
This person in history can clearly claim to be one of the most atypical. Hollywood actresses of the 40s and 50s are associated with thoughtless, beautiful ingénues, flitting from party to party and dating. Australian native Hedy Lamarr is definitely not one of them. In between filming, the girl was actively engaged in research on everything in the world. In many European countries and in Australia, Inventor's Day is celebrated on November 9, as you can guess, it was on this day that this actress was born.In the 40s, Lammar and her friend patented an invention that made it possible to remotely control torpedoes over long distances. The actress figured out that it was necessary to create not just a communication channel that could be intercepted, but a random code. Such a breakthrough was associated with encryption and her abilities in this science. Alas, Lammar’s revolutionary system was not immediately recognized. However, 50 years later, this invention has evolved into what is today called smartphone and Wi-Fi connectivity.
With her husband, Mary worked with Manchester computers for a long time, fulfilling the needs of the military, and stood at the origins of the creation of the first commercial PCs. But there is one more feature. She gave birth to a son, Tim Berners Lee, who later became an Internet pioneer. Now it’s impossible to imagine your life without it, and any of them relate to the World Wide Web in one way or another.
This woman took a bold step and proposed making the OS user-centric. Ultimately, this is what changed the history of Apple and brought the company to unprecedented heights of success. To implement its plan, the company needed a product from NeXT, where the main genius of apple lovers worked at that time. As a result, Apple bought the company, and made Steve a like-minded person and the main inventor of the generation.
The young programmer worked on many projects. It was she who created all the developments for systems that have now become nothing more than a graphical interface. Now Adele has her own company, Neometron, related to the Internet. But she still supports various foundations and educational programs in general.
The girl herself was born in Pennsylvania, and received a bachelor’s degree, not a mathematics degree. Then she dramatically changes her field of interest and, after studying humanities, is actively involved in web development. Its clients include the world's largest corporations. After the purchase of her brainchild by Yahoo!, Katarina worked for this giant. Not long ago, her website Hunch was purchased for a record amount of almost $100 million.
All of these women are a source of pride and can serve as incredible motivation for all of us. Many of them worked at a time when programming did not tolerate women, and world views on women's work were completely different. And yet they were successful. Now thousands of female programmers are proving that this is not only a male profession. All that remains is to take them as an example.
A review of myths about programming that are frightening, misleading, and hinder the development of new and experienced developers.
The field of information technology seems mysterious and incomprehensible to the uninitiated. Any secret sooner or later begins to acquire stereotypes and mythical images, and programming has not escaped this fate. In the Magic Land of IT, where it is always warm and money grows right on trees, new heroes and artifacts have appeared: the All-Powerful Hacker, the Ideal Language and the Mysterious Female Programmer, similar to Schrödinger's cat.
True programmer, what is he like?
There are many myths about programming that lift the veil of secrecy over the mysterious image of the Real Programmer. This hero appears in different guises, but his superpowers are not in doubt.
A real Programmer is a superman who can deal with evil viruses with one snap of his fingers, diagnose a sick computer with the help of X-ray vision, and immediately repair it on the spot with the power of thought.
The real Programmer in the world is a bearded man in a thick sweater with coffee stains. At night he sneaks to the computer to code a little in silence, and during the day he hides from people in dark corners.
Myth 1. Programmers don’t like to communicate
The main plot of most myths about programming is a sociophobic hero, withdrawn into himself and reluctant to make contact with the outside world. Indeed, the specifics of software development are such that a specialist spends a lot of time alone with a computer, concentrating on creating code.
However, this does not prevent the programmer from closely communicating with his colleagues, discussing work issues, attending various conferences and simply hanging out with friends. In this area, a warm atmosphere and team cohesion are highly valued. It is believed that the more comfortable a person is at work, the better product he is able to create.
Myth 2. Programmers have a boring life
According to popular belief, programmers do not have hobbies, do not engage in creativity, and spend all their time in front of a computer monitor, eating instant convenience foods. Entering the programming path, a newcomer who has seen enough stereotypical films fears that he will become the same.
In fact, programmers, like people of any other profession, are different. Everyone has their own hobbies: dancing, drawing, extreme sports, traveling. They have only one common problem - lack of time for all these joys.
Myth 3. A good programmer can do anything
In dozens of programming myths, the protagonist selflessly solves problems directly or indirectly related to the computer.
The main superpowers of a working programmer:
- , security systems of banks and state enterprises;
- repairing all possible malfunctions of PCs, laptops, printers and other peripheral equipment;
- installation and configuration of various operating systems.
Of course, this is not true. In the field of information technology, there are a huge number of areas of activity that are not directly related to each other: some work with hardware, some with programs, some with networks. We won’t demand that a highly qualified primary school teacher perform an operation on a child to remove the tonsils just because the object of manipulation is the same?
Myth 4. Programmers only know how to write code
The creators of such myths about programming are undoubtedly very far from this area and have no idea how the development process occurs.
The problems solved by computer programs go far beyond the field of information technology. Take accounting tools, for example: in order to create a high-quality product, a programmer must have a general understanding of this subject area.
The ideal solution seems to be a collaboration between a professional accountant who knows what he wants and a coder who understands programming and knows how to tell the machine what to do. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
An accountant in most cases is too far from computer science and is simply not able to explain in detail what he expects from a product. So the programmer has to independently delve into economic concepts and schemes.
Myth 5. A true programmer writes everything from scratch
Having received a new task, a good specialist sits down at the computer and creates the entire architecture from scratch. A great programmer doesn't need anyone else's help. He is absolutely confident in every element of his program and can vouch for its smooth operation.
In this case, 90% of all existing software products, the work of which is based on other programs, libraries and frameworks, would not have appeared. Programming is dominated by the ideology of division of labor and reuse of ready-made system components, modularity. This allows you to greatly simplify and speed up development, increasing its quality.
How to become a labor programmer
The road to the heights of professional excellence is so mysterious and uncertain that folk art offers several myths about programming with opposite scenarios.
Myth 6. Long thorny path
Programming has long been dominated by self-taught people. More and more professionals are emerging from people who have never attended a lecture on Pascal procedures.
Unfortunately, a university, no matter how good it may be, cannot turn an uninterested student into a motivated employee. And an interested person will find where and what to learn even without a university. In the IT industry, employers are well aware of this.
This, however, does not negate the benefits of an academic education in programming. A deep understanding of basic concepts and extensive problem solving experience are an excellent foundation for future work.
Myth 7. The easy, pleasant path
You can become a programmer in 30 minutes a day. It’s enough to take some courses or watch a couple of video lessons. It's very simple, why haven't everyone started writing code yet?
We have already stopped believing that we can learn a foreign language in a week. In programming the situation is no better. Knowledge + real experience is the only possible recipe for success. Gaining experience for 30 minutes a day will take you many years.
The path to professional heights never ends. Having studied at the university, completed courses, read a bunch of textbooks, you cannot stop. A good programmer learns throughout his life.
Myth 8. All courses are the same / Ideal course
On the vast world wide web and on the shelves of bookstores you can find hundreds of a wide variety of textbooks, courses, and cheat sheets on programming. Of course they are different from each other. At a minimum, they have different authors with their own style of presentation, presentation and choice of material. And that's great because everyone learns differently.
There is no super course that would suit every student. In search of a material that is ideal in all respects, you can go through many unsuitable ones, this is completely normal.
Therefore, most courses offer students a short free trial period, and this opportunity should be taken advantage of.
Myth 9. You should start with complex languages and concepts.
It is unknown where this illogical myth came from, but it is quite common among beginners in programming.
These skills are especially useful for children. Yes, yes, from the age of 7-8, a child is quite capable of understanding basic concepts and algorithms. There are even development environments for children, for example, Scratch. Such activities develop logic, memory, and analytical thinking.
Myth 18. Women cannot be good programmers
The birth of this stereotype seems especially strange if we remember how many talented female programmers history knows.
The fact is that representatives of the fair sex are less likely than men to choose this professional path, so in principle there are fewer of them in this field. But there are no objective factors that prevent an interested woman from achieving success in the programming path.
Programming languages
When fears are overcome, the initial stage of training is completed, and the adept is already decisively ready to become a professional programmer, new stereotypes stand in his way.
Myth 19. All languages are the same / different
Programming languages are similar to each other, but they cannot be called identical.
The similarities are explained by the basic concepts, the logic that underlies everything. But each language was created for its own purpose: learning, web development, increased productivity, working with . This determines the features of syntax and semantics, as well as additions that distinguish one language from another.
In most cases, a programmer who has mastered one language can easily understand a program written in another. However, for a detailed understanding he will probably need a reference book.
Of course, there are low-level, high-level and other specific languages that are unlike anyone else, but there are few of them + they are narrowly focused.
Myth 20. Ideal language
Beginners, coming to programming, first of all ask the question, which of the entire variety of existing languages is the best, most convenient, useful - ideal!
Programmers, like waders faithful to their swamps, are very fond of the languages in which they primarily write, and shamelessly praise them. However, the mysterious Ideal Language is still not found.
There's no need to look for the Holy Grail of programming: it doesn't exist. A beginner should simply choose the language he likes and explore its capabilities.
Myth 21. Web programming is not serious
For a long time, the language was considered frivolous among developers, to put it mildly. Made on the knee, it simply could not become the basis of something large and complex. Now the opinion has changed, PHP has found its niche in the IT field.
JavaScript has always been a toy language, suitable only for simple animation of web pages. Now this language is diligently fighting for the title of the most universal, successfully mastering the server side of development.
– a large and actively developing area. Now this is very serious.
Myth 22. Programming is boring
One of the most intoxicating feelings experienced by a programmer is the feeling of a creator. Thanks to him, programs emerge from oblivion that can bring benefit and joy to people.
Programming skills are applicable in all areas of life: from agriculture to aircraft manufacturing and the space industry. Programmers, social networks, mobile applications - is it boring?
Magic Country IT
Shrouded in the fog of stereotypes and myths about programming, the Magic Land of IT lures young adherents with illusions and promises.
Myth 23. Programmer = millionaire
There is an opinion that programmers earn decent money. Indeed, the salaries of many workers are very reasonable. Many, but not all.
The demand for IT specialists in the labor market is high, but employers are looking for workers with experience, so at first you will have to be content with small salaries and build up a portfolio.
To reach professional heights you need to work hard, or come up with and create a truly cool product.
Myth 24. Nobody needs beginners
The opposite myth claims that it is impossible for a beginner in programming to start earning money until he gets his hands on it and builds a portfolio.
In fact, there are many juniors on the market, where the applicant can gain experience on real projects and even receive a small salary. In the future, full employment in the same company is possible. In addition, there are freelance exchanges where you can find tasks that match the level of the performer.
Myth 25. Programming skills are needed only by programmers
Is programming a specific skill, and is it only needed by those who are directly involved in it? This is wrong.
Computers are now accessible and convenient, with their help you can significantly simplify your life and increase your own efficiency. Smart machines can perform routine, repetitive, long-term operations for a person, for example, compiling reports, calculating statistics, formatting texts, and processing videos. But for this they need to be programmed.
The basics of computer literacy should become as natural knowledge as the ability to multiply numbers.
