Software Experts Ipersonally Respect

From the fork of RespectedSoftwareExperts. Careful how you say forking RespectedSoftwareExperts

Fair enough. Who are RespectedSoftwareExperts for you then?

Personal lists

RobertMartin, KentBeck, WardCunningham, RonJeffries, DonWells, BjarneStroustrup, AndrewKoenig, ErichGamma, RalphJohnson, DougSchmidt, BradAppleton, TimOttinger, JimCoplien, AlistairCockburn, BrianKernighan, DougLea, TomCargill, JohnLakos, BobMurray?. -- MartijnMeijering

For long standing contributions to the Art, prolific and enjoyable writing, and early experiments in XP practices: PjPlauger -- WayneConrad

AlanCooper -- ManfredSchaefer

DonKnuth, FredBrooks, GuySteele, WardAndKent, JamesGosling, DougMcIlroy, and (reluctantly) RobPike. -- GlennVanderburg

DonKnuth, FredBrooks, KentBeck, JohnCook, BertrandMeyer, MartinFowler, BrianKernighan, JimCoplien, RobWhittick, MichaelJackson, -- KeithBraithwaite

FredBrooks, JimCoplien, DougSchmidt, RalphJohnson, BjarneStroustrup, GradyBooch, RobertMartin, AndyAbate?, WardCunningham, RichardStevens? -- DavidHooker (I've only actually met 3 of these guys)

DonBox, KeithBrown, MattPietrek, JeffProise, JeffRichter, BruceEckel, SteveMcConnell, PeterCoad, KentBeck, WardCunningham, RonJeffries, BjarneStroustrup, ErichGamma, RalphJohnson, BradAppleton, JimCoplien, AlistairCockburn -- SamG

AlanKay, GraceHopper, JosephGoguen, AdeleGoldberg, OleJohanDahl, AlexanderStepanov, CarHoare, FredBrooks, DonKnuth, CharlesSimonyi, BrianRussell, ErichGamma, BertrandMeyer, EwDijkstra, DavidGelernter, BarryBoehm, KernighanAndRitchie, EfCodd, (and how did I forget) DavidParnas -- RobertDiFalco (this was harder to do than I expected)

Robert Floyd, Jeffrey Ullman, ChristopherStrachey (father, or possibly grandfather, of DenotationalSemantics) -- CameronSmith

KentBeck, WardCunningham, RobertMartin, MartinFowler, GangOfFour, BjarneStroustrup, JohnMcCarthy, EfCodd, DonKnuth, RichardGabriel, LinusTorvalds, BillGates, KentPitman?, DavidMoon -- JonathanTang

NiklausWirth (inventor of the Pascal language).

GuidoVanRossum (inventor of PythonLanguage) -- PeterFunk

NiklausWirth, AlanKay, DonKnuth, TedNelson, VannevarBush, DouglasEngelbart?, GangOfFour, EdwardYourdon, PeterCoad, BarryBoehm, RichardStallman, LinusTorvalds, JohnBackus, CarHoare, EwDijkstra -- GeraldoXexeo

JonBentley

GuySteele, RichardStallman, CarHoare, BrianKernighan, NiklausWirth -- LukeGorrie

RobertGlass

TimPeters (every time I read something he writes I learn something new), EwDijkstra (astonishingly insightful), AndrewHunt & DavidThomas (for writing PragmaticProgrammer), MartinFowler, and many others I haven't thought of yet or haven't listed here. -- MichaelChermside

JimWeirich --TopMind

JohnCarter's list...

LinusTorvalds - For genius, pragmatism, effectiveness. So much of "style" in these parts relates to the OOPS paradigm that it is rewarding to watch Torvald's OOP-free style. Retro in some respects but one can not deny his effectiveness. We need to be reminded that there are many core aspects of good programming style that do not relate to OOPs.

RichardStallman - Bloody-minded single-mindedness of idealogical purpose whilst producing some very useful code.

MartinFowler - For making refactoring PC.

ManfredVonThun - for seeing that in postfix languages functional composition == string concatenation. See JoyLanguage.

All the inventors of GroundBreakingLanguages (q.v.). My list so far includes, in no particular order: JohnBackus, RalphGriswold, KenIverson, PeterNaur, JohnMcCarthy, Grace Murray Hopper (GraceHopper), Charles Moore (ChuckMoore), John Kemeny, Thomas Kurtz, KristenNygaard, and Ole-Johan Dahl.

-- CameronSmith

JayForrester - Led the WhirlwindComputer? project at MIT, invented magnetic core memory, and was a mentor of KenOlsen?. Then went on to develop SystemDynamics, and a computer language to go with it. KentBeck uses some SystemDynamics-inspired feedback-loop diagrams in his XP books. --StanSilver

Categorized - refactor please

Polymaths
DonKnuth, GuySteele
  • I'm aware of the stuff currently on the GuySteele page, but how is he a polymath? (I'm not arguing, I'm just curious)

Speakers of unpopular truths
FredBrooks, WardAndKent, RobPike, DavidGelernter
Prodigious designers and/or programmers
JamesGosling, DougMcIlroy, JohnCarmack
Grand old men
DonKnuth, DougMcIlroy, CarHoare
Unfortunately arrogant creative thinkers
RobPike, BertrandMeyer, EwDijkstra
Communicating complex ideas to us slow people
MisterRonJeffries, AlistairCockburn, MartinFowler, RobertMartin
Pipe organ guys
DonKnuth, AlanKay, JefRaskin, HakonLie? (I don't know that Lie matches up to most of the other guys here, although he is the inventor of CSS, but it's hard to resist adding to a list of pipe-organ-loving programmers) 
BikeToWork guys:  WardCunningham

Thanks for the first three independent nominations, Sam. Hey, this could become like the Oscars! In all seriousness knowing the right award categories could be more than half the battle here.

I accept that all are software experts, in a reasonable sense of that term. I know Kent's writings and philosophy the best and that's because I think he's not just an interesting thinker(-doer) and an excellent communicator, but, I hope, a "brand new consensus building" software expert. -- RichardDrake

See also: WikiBias?, ConsensusBendersAndProudOfIt?

I'd love to make more of this page and its relations. Perhaps the name wasn't quite right - does the "I personally" inhibit group refactoring? SoftwareExpertsNonsoftwarePeopleRespect is a more objective or testable subject but I'm not sure how interested Wiki is in that one.

I thought about SoftwareExpertsWeRespect? and SoftwareExpertsEveryoneRespects. But that last one could be an even shorter page... -- rd

When people get further away from the code than you are, perhaps you stop respecting them? Especially when they tell you how it is or should be... -- JB

And also what it should do for society? Who has respect there?

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