DevTopics is a high-level and sometimes satirical look at software development and computer technology. DevTopics is written by Tim Toady, the founder of Browserling Inc, a cross-browser testing company. When we occasionally dive into the details, it's usually about C# and .NET programming. (More)
To be a “most important” innovation, an innovation has to be an idea that is very widely used and is critically important where it applies. – David A. Wheeler
It’s not easy choosing the best innovators in an industry defined by innovation. The nature of software is such that the technologies, systems and products completely refresh every decade or so. The triumphant invention of just 10 years ago is now considered “legacy” or even obsolete. So making a lasting impression in the software business is a tough task indeed.
Following is my list of the top 10 software innovators of all time. Inclusion on this list doesn’t mean the person came up with every idea or wrote every byte of code. Rather, these are the people whose leadership, ideas, designs and products propelled the software industry forward by leaps and bounds. Their innovations affect us greatly even today.
I was reading an article about the death of actor Charlton Heston, most famous for his portrayal of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic movie, “The Ten Commandments.” That gave me the idea to write a “Programmer’s 10 Commandments,” but a quick perusal of Google showed that many people have already been there, done that.
So instead, here is a bunch of “Commandments for Programmers”:
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for disclosure of an invention. The patent enables the inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing the invention. (wiki)
Displacement in a user interface (UI) is when you are working with data in one place, and the software forces you to go to a completely different place to add or edit the data. UI displacement results in interrupted work flow, wasted time, user confusion and frustration.
“Hello, Mr. Consumer, we offer amazing new widget software that will save you time and money! It can do X, Y, and Z. You can download and install it from our website. Oh, and by the way, you need .NET 3.5. What’s that? It’s a 200MB separate download from Microsoft that takes an hour to install and… Hello? Hello? Mr. Consumer?”
Welcome to my world as a commercial software developer who uses Microsoft .NET. Continue reading »
Cubital tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a repetitive stress injury (RSI) that can result in moderate to severe pain and numbness in the elbow and ring & little fingers. Last year I wrote the article “Programmer’s Nightmare: Cubital Tunnel Syndrome” about my pain and struggles with CTS and how it threatens my programming career.
As people started commenting on the article, a small community developed. I was impressed at how people would share their CTS tips and experiences, commiserate with each other’s pain, and genuinely care about one another.
So with the help of Tim Perez, we built cubital-tunnel.com, a site dedicated to CTS that includes an online community where people can share and discuss their cubital tunnel challenges and successes.
In 1968, inventor Robert Propst revolutionized the American workplace with his “Action Office” design for the Herman Miller furniture company. Propst intended to create a more dynamic and flexible workspace, but the end result was the much-maligned office cubicle.
Hans Reiser, a programmer famous for creating the ReiserFS computer file system for Linux, is charged with killing his wife, whose body has never been found.
I was reading an article about the death of actor Charlton Heston, most famous for his portrayal of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic movie, “The Ten Commandments.” That gave me the idea to write a “Programmer’s 10 Commandments,” but a quick perusal of Google showed that many people have already been there, done that.