19 programming masters

Link: http://www.ituring.com.cn/article/409

Editor's note:This idea of conducting a series of interviews with the most prestigious contemporary programmers was proposed by Min S. Yee of Microsoft press.

In the interview, we asked the following questions:Where did those ideas come from? How hard is it to turn an idea into reality? What is the feeling of developing large programs? Is this an art or a science? Is it craft or skill? Can I do the same thing again?The goal of an interview is not to dictate, cheat, or manipulate it, but to allow the programmer to reflect and reflect freely, and then express his own programming methods in words.

There are a large number of excellent programmers in the world, and they will not all appear in this book. Therefore, this is the first book in a series of interviews with outstanding contemporary programmers.

Before publishing this book, it is necessary to let readers know in advance the background of the masters of the times. In the future, we will introduce an interview chapter, so stay tuned!

Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary on September 10, 1948. When he was in high school, Charles began to access computers and programming. His father arranged for him to serve as an assistant to a computer engineer. At that time, there were only a handful of computers in Hungary.

In 1966, Charles graduated from high school and completed his first compiler. He earned a position at A/S regnecentralen in Copenhagen, Denmark based on his experience in Compiler development. In 1968, Charles left Denmark to study at the University of California Berkeley. In 1972, he obtained a bachelor's degree in science and a doctorate from Stanford University in 1977.

Simonyi has worked in UC Berkeley computer center, Berkeley computer company, illiac 4 Project and Xerox PARC. He has been working for Microsoft since 1981. At Xerox, Charles developed the Bravo and Bravo X programs for Alto personal computers. At Microsoft, Charles formed an application software team and led the development of popular applications such as Multiplan, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel. In almost every field of the micro-computer world, Charles Simonyi has his brand, either through his own works or by influencing those who work with him. He is humble and lively, often smiling on his face, and can comment on almost any topic, whether or not it is related to a computer.

For more information about Simonyi, see Charles Simonyi, the life of programmers at work.

Butler Lampson

Butler Lampson is a senior engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) System Research Center in California, he was an associate professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, a founder of Berkeley computer company, and a senior researcher at Xerox PARC computer science laboratory.

Lampson, one of the industry's most respected experts, has made great achievements in many computer design and research fields. He has developed hardware systems such as Ethernet LAN and Alto and Dorado PCs; operating systems such as SDS 940 and Alto; programming languages such as LISP and mesa; applications, such as the Bravo editor and star office system, as well as network servers, such as the Dover printer and grapevine mail system.

John Warnock

John Warnock was born in 1940 and grew up in Utah. He studied at the University of Utah and obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics and a doctorate in computer science. In 1968, Dave Evans set up a famous R & D team at the University of Utah to Study interactive design and computer graphics. At this time, Warnock was just transferred to computer science. After obtaining a doctorate in computer science, Warnock entered a company in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and tried to become an entrepreneur for a period of time. Then he joined Computer Sciences of Canada ), work in Toronto. Afterwards, he went to Washington, DC to work at the godad Space Flight Center.

In 1972, Warnock moved to California and joined Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland in the work of the illiac iv giant computer, NASA space flight simulator and aircraft simulator. In 1978, Warnock joined Xerox PARC and worked in the computer science lab for four years. During PARC's work, Warnock was committed to improving the typographical Effect of computer grayscale imaging.

In October 1982, Dr. John E. Warnock and Dr. Charles M. geshchke jointly created Adobe Systems to develop software for mixed text and graphics, with output unrelated to devices. They cooperated with each other to develop the Adobe system company's first product postscript.

When you enter the office building, you will see the Adobe company logo at a glance. The building is located next to Embarcadero in paraloalto, which is surrounded by many high-tech enterprises. The company logo is very big and shining, showing the recent success of Warnock. Like many others, Warnock left Xerox PARC with his own ideas and turned these ideas into a language (postscript) and a company (Adobe system company) in the real world ).

Gary Kildall

Gary A. Kildall, founder and chairman of the board of directors of the institute of digital research (DRI), developed the first micro-computer operating system from 1972 to 1973. He called the system the CP/M (Control Program/Monitoring Program) operating system and later became their first product. In addition, he designed the drlogo programming language for IBM personal computers and developed one of the earliest advanced computer languages on the microcomputer, PL/1.

Gary Kildall was from Seattle in May 19, 1942. He obtained a doctorate in computer science from the University of Washington in 1972. He then joined the Navy and taught computer science at the US Naval graduate school in Montreal, California. After retiring from the Navy, he continues coaching there.

Kildall created a new company named activenture in 1984 (recently renamed knowledgeset) to explore the potential of the CD publishing industry. Activenture announced in 1985 that it will publish a CD-ROM version of Gloria multimedia encyclopedia. Kildall is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of digital research while serving as the president of knowledgeset.

Bill Gates

As CEO of Microsoft, William H. (Bill) Gates is considered a powerful promoter in today's personal computing and office automation industries. Bill Gates started his career in computer software since he was young. When Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was still in high school in Seattle, WA, the two began to work as programming consultants. In 1974, while Gates was studying at Harvard University, he partnered with Allen to develop a basic programming language for the first Taiwanese businessman to use the micro-computer MITS Altair. After the successful completion of that project, the two founded Microsoft to develop and sell software for the emerging computer market.

Microsoft has set standards for the software industry in terms of programming languages, operating systems, and application software. Gates has provided Microsoft with a vision for new product creativity and technological development. When developing new products, he will also personally guide the technical team to invest time to review and improve the software sold by Microsoft.

John Page

John Page was born in London in September 21, 1944. He started using computers as a teenager and continued to work in the computer field for more than 20 years.

In 1970, John Page joined HP. He has been providing technical support for HP for more than four years in London, Geneva and other parts of Europe. In 1974, he moved to cubitino, Calif., where HP's headquarters is located to manage the global technical support for HP 3000 computers. Later, he moved to the software development field and developed the image database management system. During his work at HP, page studied artificial intelligence at Stanford University and completed graduate jobs in computer science. In 1980, page left HP and joined hands with Fred Gibbons and Janelle bedke to create a Software publishing company.
Corporation, SPC ). Page developed the first product of the Software publishing company in his garage, namely, the PFS: file later. There are now more than six types of software in the PFS series, covering all aspects of information management. John Page is vice president of R & D at a Software publishing company.

John Page is a tall, healthy, and childish person. His eyes are soft, his smile is friendly, and his speech carries a slight british accent. When we met, he wore a blue shirt with no buckle and a gray casual trousers. Page took me through the California-style comfortable mahogany-pillar office of the Software publishing company and into a large, empty meeting room. There, page considers and analyzes his practices and experiences in programming and management software companies with a relaxed state.

C. Wayne Ratliff

From 1969 to 1982, C. Wayne Ratliff worked at Martin Marietta and held a number of engineering and management jobs. When the pirate space aircraft landed on Mars in December 1976, he was a member of the NASA (National Aeronautics and Astronautics) pirate flight team, a Data Management System (mfile) is compiled for the landing support software of the pirate account.

He began to write a program named Vulcan (volcano) in 1978 and made his own sales during the period from 1979 to 1980. In the second half of 1980, he reached a marketing agreement with Ashton-tate and renamed the Vulcan product dbase ii. In 1983, Ashton-tate purchased the technology and copyright of dbase ii, and Ratliff joined Ashton-tate as the vice president of new technologies. Ratliff is a project manager of dbase iii and serves as a designer and primary programmer.

Ratliff was born in trentton, Ohio and grew up in multiple towns in Ohio and Germany. He now lives in LA.

Dan Bricklin

Dan Bricklin, A philadphia man, was born in July 16, 1951. In 1973, he graduated from MIT and obtained a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science. after his graduation, he worked at digital equipment companies (DEC) and Fas fax, he started programming and then went to Harvard Business School. During his stay at Harvard, he designed a spreadsheet program based on the expertise and advice of his classmates and professors.

In 1978, at Harvard University, he worked with Bob Frankston, MIT's fellow student, to develop a practical version of the program. This is the later visic1c. They founded a company named software arts, which was incorporated in January 1979. In April of the same year, they signed a contract with personal software, which is responsible for the market operation of visic1c. (Personal software was later renamed visicorp .) News about visic1c was soon overwhelming. By May 1981, visic1c had sold more than 0.1 million sets. In 1983, the cumulative sales volume exceeded 0.5 million sets. Software
The success of arts continued until 1984. Afterwards, they and visicorp entered into a long-standing lawsuit to compete for rights related to visic1c.

In May 1985, Dan Bricklin left software arts and joined Lotus for a short period of time as a consultant. Dan Bricklin founded Software Garden, his new company, which was officially registered in November 1985. The first product launched by the company is "Dan Bricklin's demo program ".

Bob Frankston

Bob Frankston, 36, has been programming for more than 20 years. He is the mayor of Brooklyn in New York. As early as he was a teenager, he became very interested in electronic technology and computers. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he further strengthened his research in these fields. In 1970, he obtained two bachelor's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of which is a bachelor's degree in mathematics, one is a bachelor of electrical engineering and computer science. In 1974, he obtained two additional degrees from MIT, one from engineering, and the other from electrical engineering and computer science. When he met Dan Bricklin at MIT, the two became friends.

Bricklin came up with the idea of electronic reports at Harvard Business School, so Bob Frankston was asked to develop a runable version. Bob Frankston, regardless of day and night, will program in his attic whenever he has time, and finally develops a software version of the electronic report prototype based on Bricklin's vision. Later, the two of them set up the software Arts Company, working side by side, and launched their first product, visic1c, in 1979. In the spring of 1985, the software art company was dissolved because of a long-standing lawsuit with visicorp (formerly personal software and later Paladin, frankston immediately joined Lotus Software Development Company (Lotus
Development Corporation), becomes the chief scientist of the Information Service Department.

Jonathan Sachs

Born in 1947, Jonathan Sachs grew up in New England on the East Coast of the United States. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Goldman Sachs has been studying and working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 14 years. As a programmer, he has extensive programming experience: He has worked at space research centers, cognitive information processing groups, and biomedical engineering centers. When working for the biomedical engineering center, he developed the stoic (Stack-oriented interactive compiler) programming language. In the middle of 1970s, Goldman Sachs left MIT and came to Data General to manage the development of an operating system. Then he and others jointly founded concentric data systems, a well-known company with database products. The remarkable success of Lotus
1-2-3 the development of the electronic report software is attributed to Jonathan Sachs. In 1981, Goldman Sachs and Mitch Kapor developed and sold the electronic report program of Goldman Sachs. In April 1982, a Lotus software development company with only eight employees was established. In January 26, 1983, Lotus began to deliver Lotus 1-2-3 software for ibm pc. In April 26 of the same year, Lotus 1-2-3 software jumped to the top of softsel's top selling rankings for the first time and remained high. It is also the first program to replace visic1c. In 1984, Goldman Sachs left Lotus software development and set up its own company.

Ray Ozzie

Ray Ozzie was born in November 20, 1955 and grew up in Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago. He studied computer science at the University of Illinois at Champaign. He developed a Plato (Programmed Logic for automatic teaching operation), a computer-aided education system that is connected to nearly 1000 terminals around the world.

After graduating from college in 1978, Ozzie joined Data General, a small computer company near Boston, to work under Jonathan Sachs to develop a small business system. After leaving Data General, Ozzie entered the micro-computer and software world of visic1c's creator software arts. After one and a half years of work in software arts, Ozzie resigned and joined Lotus to work with Jonathan Sachs and Mitch Kapor. He participated in Symphony Development and later became the project owner. After the completion of Symphony, Ray Ozzie founded his company Iris
Associates, which signs contracts with Lotus to develop software.

Ray now lives with his wife, Dawna bousquet, and their son, Neil, in a country out of Boston.

Peter Roizen

Peter Roizen, a California resident, grew up in palodo. He studied at UC Berkeley and obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1967. His first job after graduation was a programmer, although he had hardly touched programming before. Roizen spent two years in Montreal and Toronto after leaving Berkeley, then went to Europe and worked as a programmer for seven years at the World Health Organization. He then returned to the United States and worked for the World Bank in Washington, DC. In 1980, Roizen founded his own company to promote and sell his electronic data table program, that is, T/maker. This was developed in his spare time when he worked at the World Bank. In 1985, Roizen moved his small company from Washington, DC to the San Francisco Bay Area. Roizen is 39 years old. He is married and has a five-year-old son. He lives in Los Gatos, California.

Bob Carr

As chief scientist at Ashton-tate, 29-year-old Robert Carr is responsible for research on new products and technologies. As one of the pioneers in the field of integrated software, Carr is the designer and main developer of framework software and its subsequent product Framework II software.

Prior to that, Carr served as the Chairman of forefront. In July 1983, Carr partnered with people to set up forefront to complete framework software development he started 15 months ago. Ashton-tate agrees to obtain the market development right of the Framework software by injecting funds into forefront. In July 1985, Ashton-tate acquired forefront.

Before developing the framework software and jointly creating forefront, Carr participated in the development of context MBA software, one of the earliest integrated software packages, and served as its Program Development Consultant. Prior to this, Carr worked on the development of Xerox star and the predecessor of Smalltalk at the Palo Alto Research Center of Xerox. He also has a bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in computer science from Stanford University.

Jef Raskin

Jef Raskin, founder of Apple Computer's Macintosh project, is versatile. He served as the conductor of the San Francisco small Opera Troupe and held several patents in the field of packaging design, aircraft structure and electronics. He is also an artist and works have been exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles Museum of Art. He is currently the CEO of information appliance Inc. Raskin was born in New York City in 1943. In his words, he is almost the same age as a digital computer.

At Rock Creek, New York State University, he specializes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and music. He earned multiple scholarships and won the National Science Foundation). After five years of study, he graduated from college and obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Later, he obtained a master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University and became a professor of visual art at the University of California, Santiago (UCSD. He has taught at University of California, San Diego for 5 years and serves as a third College, see Thurgood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.MarshallCollege) Head of the computer center.

He decided to resign from San Diego later-he did not want to say much about the reason for leaving. Later, he became a professional musician engaged in teaching and command. When 8080 microprocessor was launched, Raskin founded Bannister & crun to take advantage of this new technology. The company found a profitable market segment dedicated to preparing manuals and software for Heath, apple, National Semiconductor, and other companies.

In 1978, he joined Apple Computer Company and became an employee of employee No. 31st, serving as the release manager. Later, he acted as the manager of Senior Systems and formed a team that created the Macintosh. In 1982, he left Apple and went to Dansk datamatik Institute to teach, and then went back to Silicon Valley to create an information equipment company.

Andy Hertzfeld

Andy Hertzfeld was born in April 6, 1953 and grew up in the western suburbs of philphia. Hertzfeld was fascinated by computers when he was in high school. One of the programs he was writing was a dating program for the school dance. After graduating from high school, he entered Brown University, studied physics, mathematics and computer science, and obtained a computer science degree in 1975. In 1979, Hertzfeld received a master's degree in computer science from UC Berkeley. After graduation, Hertzfeld joined Apple Computer and was engaged in the development of silentype printers, apple III operating systems and other products. In February 1981, he joined the Macintosh development team as a second programmer, participated in project development, and became the main developer of the Macintosh operating system. Recently, Hertzfeld left Apple and began to work independently. He later developed switcher on the Macintosh
And a low-cost, high-resolution digital device called thunderscan.

Toru iwatani

The game designer iwatani was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. He is self-taught in computer, visual art, or graphic design, and has not received formal training. In 1977, 22-Year-Old iwatani joined Namco Limited, a computer software company in Tokyo that made electronic games. After entering the company, iwatani finally found a suitable position for him, game design. Iwatani worked with four other people to complete the production of the Pac Man game from conception to finished products, which lasted one year and five months.

The game was first available in Japan, making it a success. After being exported to Europe and the US, it captured a large number of players. After completing Pac Man, iwatani has designed a number of games, including his favorite libble rabble. Recently, iwatani has started to participate more in Namwon palace's company management.

Scott Kim

Scott Kim was born in October 27, 1955, a local in Los Angeles. He studied mathematics, computer science, and music at Stanford University and obtained a bachelor's degree in music in 1977. In 1975, after studying the graphic design course, Kim began to work on his inversion-Kim used the word "Inverted" to express his interpretation of the text Art, text can be viewed in many different directions, similar to text and word puzzles. Scott Kim published inversion in 1981. Many distinguished people in the computer industry have contributed to this book. Preface written by Douglas Hofstadter. He is a professor of Kim and a friend of Kim. John
Warnock helps program images. Donald knuth and David Fuchs helped with typographical design. Jef Raskin wrote "Postscript ". Kim also recently developed a "fourth-party software" that works with this section to use on Apple's Macintosh computers. The software runs on top of macpaint, including many exercises, techniques, and games used to create an "invert.

Kim applied his familiar knowledge of graphic design and fonts to his work in computer science. At present, he is studying a brand new user interface design method, which is the subject of his doctorate degree at Stanford University. As early as reading this section, Kim studied while serving as a volunteer consultant at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. He also worked on Information appliances in Palo Alto. In addition, he has his own company, look twice.

Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier, who grew up in western New Mexico and Texas, moved to California in 1981 and sought a different life. As he said, "Have a hippy life in Santa Cruz and play a flute in a mall ". Of course not. On the contrary, at the age of 25, lanille had started his own company called visualprogramming programming ages (Visual Programming Language) and developed products that most of us could not imagine. When he first entered the computer field, he was developing audio programs for electronic games. Later, when I worked at Atari, I independently developed a complete game product. His most successful game was moondust, which entered 1983.OmniTop 10 TV programs. At present, his program work is centered around the development of a new language, and rannell believes that this language will completely change the computer industry [1]. He now lives in Palo Alto, California.

[1] The company did not succeed, but lanille eventually promoted the concept of virtual reality.

Michael Hawley

Droid Works is under the company of luasma film to digitize the film production process. As a digital audio programmer, Michael Hawley participated in sounddroid (audio robot) software development. This software can be seen as a Fully Digital Audio Studio packed in a box, it can store, record, edit, and mix sounds. Of course, the sound can also be played out immediately.

Hawley is 24 years old. He grew up in the new city suburb of New York City, where he became familiar with computer and programming. Throughout his high school and university time, he worked in the Bell lab near Murray Hill. When he developed his interest in computer at Bell Labs, he also studied music and piano at Yale University, and obtained a dual degree in music and computer science in 1983. Shortly after his graduation, he went to IRCAM (acoustic/music collaboration Institute) in Paris as a researcher at Bell Labs ). While in Paris, he developed a user interface prototype for the computer music application, and participated in the first world premiere of the piano and electronic music Sonata in The IRCAM concert series. After leaving IRCAM, Hawley relocated to the west and joined droid in Marin County, California.
Works.

As I enter the building where the Droid Works Office is located, I see the lights, photographic equipment and audio equipment staff traveling around. This tells me that droid works is more of a film and entertainment industry than a traditional software and computer industry.