Linus Torvalds
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Donald Knuth
Brenden Eich
Solomon Hykes
Mark Zuckerberg
David Heinemeier Hansson
Richard Stallman
Bram Cohen
James Gosling
Bjarne Stroustrup
John Carmack
So how many do you know by name, without a search?
Seven out of twelve. I’ve even read Stroustrop’s book.
I recognized 6 of the 12, mostly due to Linux, C/C++, and Doom.
RE: So how many do you know by name, without a search?
Brenden Eich comes to mind immediately. He invented one of the most popular web langues — JavaScript, become the CEO of Mozilla, and became an unintended victim of the gay culture wars when he was discovered to have contributed a few thousand bucks to the Traditional Marriage movement in California.
He was hounded out of office. We don’t know what he’s doing now...
Brendan Eich aside, Linus Torvaldis is well known for his work on LINUX.
I know Donald Knuth because the book he authored was used as a text book of mine in college. Likewise Brenden Eich, whose book on C++ is a classic.
If you program in Java, everyone who does knows James Gosling.
Of course the most famous of the lot is none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Even none programmers know who he is.
“Richard Stallman, software freedom fighter”
Headshake.
He’s a Bearded Leftist Freak. Yes, he is a programmer. I used EMACs editor for a time.
“So how many do you know by name, without a search? “
But to answer your question? 2