Repository files navigation The following people are Computer Programmers who are widely considered to be legends in their field They are listed out of order but are categorized and with some of their more prominent accomplishments (not everything).
Designed and implemented the original Unix OS at Bell Labs (with Dennis Ritchie)
Invented the B programming language alongside Dennis Ritchie (predecessor to C)
Contributed work to regex and QED
Co-developed Go
Won the 1983 Turing Award (with colleague Dennis Ritchie)
Designed and implemented the original Unix OS at Bell Labs (with Ken Thompson)
Created the C programming language
Invented the B programming language alongside Ken Thompson
Won the 1983 Turing Award (with colleague Ken Thompson)
Created the Linux kernel
Created Git
Developed Subsurface (scuba diving software)
Developed Sparse (tool to find coding faults in the Linux kernel)
Created and designed TempleOS
Created HolyC, along with a custom compiler, kernel, and editor
Contributed to the development of the computational complexity of algorithms and mathematical techniques for it
Created TeX (typesetting program)
Created the WEB and CWEB computer programming systems (designed to encourage and facilitate literate programming)
"Father of the analysis of algorithms"
Won the 1974 ACM Turing Award
Invented Dijkstra's algorithm (shortest path in graphs)
Which he reportedly worked out in 20 minutes at a cafe in Amsterdam
Invented information theory
Introduced bits as a unit of information with his 1948 paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication"
Showed that Boolean algebra could describe electrical switching circuits with his earlier 1937 master's thesis
Contributed foundational work on cryptography during WWII
Built some of the earliest chess-playing and maze-solving machines
Had the most hyped AI model named after him because of how cracked he was
Hardware & Personal Computing (Personal Computers)
First ever computer programmer / wrote the first computer program
Sole inventor for numerous Apple computer patents
Designed the Apple I and II computers (creating the first personal computers)
Was top Tetris player for years (high score of 740,000)
Devised the theory of machine-independent programming languages
Developed COBOL
Wrote the first ever computer manual
Created the GNU project
GCC, Emacs, GDB, Glibc, Make, Tar, GZIP, diff, Bison, contributed to Bash
Invented the GPL license
Lead programmer for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, etc.
Created Carmack's Reverse algorithm for shadow volumes (technique used in 3D computer graphics)
Made contributions to VR and AI
Wrote the rendering code for Quake alongside John Carmack
Runs the team at Meta Reality Labs doing R&D for VR hardware and software
Marcus Persson (Notch)
Created Minecraft (the most successful game of all time)
Founded Mojang Studios
Solo / lead programmer for Mortal Kombat back in the day
Co-founded Valve after leaving Microsoft
Worked at Microsoft on Windows releases
Led development of Half-Life
Created Steam
Was the head programmer at Wolfire Games (Overgrowth video game)
Started with HyperCard (1987 software to create applications) at the age of 6
Got job offers from Blizzard, Ubisoft, Raven, and Crytek at the age of 16
Has a YouTube channel where he:
Builds Minecraft from scratch multiple times
Makes original games from scratch
Builds his own graphics card
Builds his own computer from scratch
And many more
Inventer of
World Wide Web
HTML
URL system
HTTP
First person to remove a SIM lock on iPhone (was 17 years old)
Has published exploits for PlayStation and Android
Founded comma.ai (advanced driver-assistance systems using machine learning)
Founded tiny corp (port machine learning instruction sets to hardware accelerators)
Contributed important work at Meta and OpenAI for machine learning
Currently works at Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)
Influental in the development of theoretical computer science.
Providing a formalization of the concepts of:
The algorithm
Computation with the Turing machine
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