This is a fun "porcelain library" read, with 100 short entries for each scientists. While the rankings are subjective, the choice of the 100 is good. I am endlessly amazed at what has been done and forgotten by most as the world-changing discoveries of these individuals.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Books about famous programmers
I just finished one and in the processing of finishing another book about legendary programmers. The first is "Mastermnds of Programming" and the second is "Coders at Work". I have a fascination with the early pioneers of programming. I work in a field of science (some would argue that computer science is not really a science, but that is for another blog post) where a great deal of the seminal work was done in my lifetime. The pioneers are starting to die off, but most are still around. These two books are both done in interview style. I find it most interesting to learn how others got started, how they matured as programmers and how the see the state of computer programming these days. I am particularly impressed with the Bell Labs guys that invented UNIX, C and myriad innovative and useful programming technologies. I would recommend both. My only complaint is that many of the interviews were obviously through email and were not edited for grammar and typos. It's a pet peeve of mine and shouldn't deter one from exploring these page-turning interviews.
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