6 ms·

It's interesting how many programming languages were made by Danes. Nauer of course contributed to algol60, but did you know PHP was written by Rasmus Lerdorrf

by mixmax 11y ago

It's interesting how many programming languages were made by Danes. Nauer of course contributed to algol60, but did you know PHP was written by Rasmus Lerdorrf, Anders Hejlsberg developed delphi, turbo pascal and C#, Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++, Ruby on Rails was developed by DHH. All Danes. Given a nation of 5 million people I think this is quite unusual.

nulldata 11y ago
Yeah, makes me proud to be a Dane.
- b6 11y ago
  I don't want to be unpleasant at all. But let's please not build up artificial walls between us. Humans moved to different parts of the world and developed slightly differently. But let's not think that being born into the "same" culture or ethnic group gives anyone some kind of password to share in some achievement. I also admire this man's work and am grateful for his intelligence and efforts.
  - dracht 11y ago
    >But let's not think that being born into the "same" culture or ethnic group gives anyone some kind of password to share in some achievement. Why not? He is a contributor to the culture that produces a disproportionate amount of successful computer scientists. If these walls were artificial, there would be no disparity.
  - pkofod 11y ago
    It's not so much that you're entitled to anything because you're of a certain ethnicity or belong to a certain culture, but if we have 200 different cultures, and some metric that we want to perform well according to, should we not try to learn from those cultures who excel? Saying that being proud of a culture is building walls and thus bad is over-the-top PC. Just because I am proud (of something) does not mean that I don't want to share it with you if you want to give it a go. You're acting as if "I'm proud to be Danish, 'cus look at all these great CS Danes" is the same as saying "We need to be the only nation in the world, and we want to wipe out everyone who thinks differently." Being proud is great, as long as you don't turn blind to other people's value and worth.
webkike 11y ago
Ruby on Rails is not a unique programming language. Matz created Ruby.
- mixmax 11y ago
  you're right of course. I thought I'd include it though since its so popular.
- JadeNB 11y ago
  > Ruby on Rails is not a unique programming language. Matz created Ruby. What does "not a unique programming language" mean? Perhaps 'discrete' or 'distinct' in place of 'unique'? As not an RoR developer, I'm hardly in a position to say, but surely at a certain point a DSL deserves to be called a language in its own right. (Extreme case (that, I realise, is far past what anyone would call a DSL): Perl, as with many other languages, is written in C, but certainly counts as a separate programming language.) EDIT, in response to two downvotes: surely it's a legitimate question? I genuinely don't know what it means to say that something isn't unique (except mathematically, that it means that there's more than one of it). Assuming that it means what it seems to mean, how does one draw the line that I mentioned?
  - iancarroll 11y ago
    Ruby on Rails is one of many frameworks on top of the Ruby language.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - michaelcampbell 11y ago
    Rails isn't a programming language at all, so it can't really be a "unique" one.
  - tamana 11y ago
    Rails is not a porgramming language, for various pedantic reasons. That doesn't make your idea bad. Rails is a defined pattern of expressing a program, conceptually similar to a language. You could call it a dialect.
macmac 11y ago
Anders of course also did TypeScript.
macmac 11y ago
And Lars Bak is the co-author of Dart.
- mixmax 11y ago
  ah yes, forgot that one. He also wrote the V8 javascript engine that powers chrome. Other notable Danes include Poul henning Kamp that among many other things wrote the varnish cache and Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen that wrote the original google maps. The Eilstrup Rasmussen brothers also invented Google wave, but I'm not sure how big an accomplishment that is :-)
  - jpatokal 11y ago
    You may have heard of the Rasmussens' other project: it's now called Google Maps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Rasmussen_(software_developer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Rasmussen_(software_devel...
    - bhaumik 11y ago
      2nd paragraph
      - pkofod 11y ago
        You may have heard about something called maps though. Google maps.
esfandia 11y ago
I believe BETA is also a programming language born in Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETA_%28programming_language%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETA_%28programming_language%2...
AKifer 11y ago
Back to the topic, here's an explanation http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-are-best-in.html http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-a...
- _yosefk 11y ago
  If I were sure that this was written seriously I should have replied along the lines of there being few chances for such an amazing resource as the best programmers in the world by a large margin to be untapped by greedy capitalists who'd then topple America's software empires. Since I'm not sure that this was written seriously, I'll point to anecdotal evidence of cfront, Stroustrup's C++ compiler, being the buggiest C++ compiler ever written. (Here's a bunch of bugs found by modern static analysis tools - http://www.i-programmer.info/programming/cc/9212-finding-bugs-in-the-first-c-compiler-what-does-bjarne-think.html http://www.i-programmer.info/programming/cc/9212-finding-bug... - but unfortunately I can't find the Usenet old posts telling that cfront was the buggiest C++ compiler of its time, and that early g++ was the next buggiest. The Unix-Haters Handbook has evidence from James Roskind who tried to make a yacc grammar for C++ - to a first approximation, an impossible thing to do due to a few goofy design decisions in the C++ grammar - and who said that every time when he tried to feed cfront input that would enlighten him with respect to some dark corner of the grammar, cfront crashed.)
  - ilek 11y ago
    Huh? From your article: I should say right away, I haven't found anything crucial and I think there are three reasons why PVS-Studio hasn't found serious bugs The rest of the article doesn't seem to back up your claim really. It even says "The code is of high quality." Regardless I agree the article isn't very good, serious or otherwise. If it is serious it uses one anecdotal piece to make a sweeping claim on the productivity of programmers across nations...
    - _yosefk 11y ago
      They show bugs in cfront, trying to sell their product to C++ developers. They'll likely call cfront high quality. That said, Roskind's experience is more telling than the output of a static analyzer because generally and certainly with a compiler, actual testing shows orders of magnitude more issues than static analysis.
mkjaer 11y ago
I'll add COMAL to that list. I believe it has become somewhat obscure today, but still, it was developed by Danes too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMAL
interfixus 11y ago
Scandinavia as a whole has done alright on the programming front. Of the LAMP stack - which still runs a huge part of the web, though many of us have moved on - all but the 'A' originated here. Linux in Finland, MySql in Sweden, and php in Denmark. The output of course being styled in Norwegian css.
- guytv 11y ago
  Don't forget the Icelandic dalvik VM.

by mixmax 11y ago

nulldata 11y ago

Yeah, makes me proud to be a Dane.

b6 11y ago
I don't want to be unpleasant at all. But let's please not build up artificial walls between us. Humans moved to different parts of the world and developed slightly differently. But let's not think that being born into the "same" culture or ethnic group gives anyone some kind of password to share in some achievement. I also admire this man's work and am grateful for his intelligence and efforts.
- dracht 11y ago
  >But let's not think that being born into the "same" culture or ethnic group gives anyone some kind of password to share in some achievement. Why not? He is a contributor to the culture that produces a disproportionate amount of successful computer scientists. If these walls were artificial, there would be no disparity.
- pkofod 11y ago
  It's not so much that you're entitled to anything because you're of a certain ethnicity or belong to a certain culture, but if we have 200 different cultures, and some metric that we want to perform well according to, should we not try to learn from those cultures who excel? Saying that being proud of a culture is building walls and thus bad is over-the-top PC. Just because I am proud (of something) does not mean that I don't want to share it with you if you want to give it a go. You're acting as if "I'm proud to be Danish, 'cus look at all these great CS Danes" is the same as saying "We need to be the only nation in the world, and we want to wipe out everyone who thinks differently." Being proud is great, as long as you don't turn blind to other people's value and worth.

webkike 11y ago

Ruby on Rails is not a unique programming language. Matz created Ruby.

mixmax 11y ago
you're right of course. I thought I'd include it though since its so popular.
JadeNB 11y ago
> Ruby on Rails is not a unique programming language. Matz created Ruby. What does "not a unique programming language" mean? Perhaps 'discrete' or 'distinct' in place of 'unique'? As not an RoR developer, I'm hardly in a position to say, but surely at a certain point a DSL deserves to be called a language in its own right. (Extreme case (that, I realise, is far past what anyone would call a DSL): Perl, as with many other languages, is written in C, but certainly counts as a separate programming language.) EDIT, in response to two downvotes: surely it's a legitimate question? I genuinely don't know what it means to say that something isn't unique (except mathematically, that it means that there's more than one of it). Assuming that it means what it seems to mean, how does one draw the line that I mentioned?
- iancarroll 11y ago
  Ruby on Rails is one of many frameworks on top of the Ruby language.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- michaelcampbell 11y ago
  Rails isn't a programming language at all, so it can't really be a "unique" one.
- tamana 11y ago
  Rails is not a porgramming language, for various pedantic reasons. That doesn't make your idea bad. Rails is a defined pattern of expressing a program, conceptually similar to a language. You could call it a dialect.

macmac 11y ago

Anders of course also did TypeScript.

macmac 11y ago

And Lars Bak is the co-author of Dart.

mixmax 11y ago
ah yes, forgot that one. He also wrote the V8 javascript engine that powers chrome. Other notable Danes include Poul henning Kamp that among many other things wrote the varnish cache and Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen that wrote the original google maps. The Eilstrup Rasmussen brothers also invented Google wave, but I'm not sure how big an accomplishment that is :-)
- jpatokal 11y ago
  You may have heard of the Rasmussens' other project: it's now called Google Maps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Rasmussen_(software_developer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Rasmussen_(software_devel...
  - bhaumik 11y ago
    2nd paragraph
    - pkofod 11y ago
      You may have heard about something called maps though. Google maps.

esfandia 11y ago

I believe BETA is also a programming language born in Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETA_%28programming_language%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETA_%28programming_language%2...

AKifer 11y ago

Back to the topic, here's an explanation http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-are-best-in.html http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2005/04/why-danish-programmers-a...

_yosefk 11y ago
If I were sure that this was written seriously I should have replied along the lines of there being few chances for such an amazing resource as the best programmers in the world by a large margin to be untapped by greedy capitalists who'd then topple America's software empires. Since I'm not sure that this was written seriously, I'll point to anecdotal evidence of cfront, Stroustrup's C++ compiler, being the buggiest C++ compiler ever written. (Here's a bunch of bugs found by modern static analysis tools - http://www.i-programmer.info/programming/cc/9212-finding-bugs-in-the-first-c-compiler-what-does-bjarne-think.html http://www.i-programmer.info/programming/cc/9212-finding-bug... - but unfortunately I can't find the Usenet old posts telling that cfront was the buggiest C++ compiler of its time, and that early g++ was the next buggiest. The Unix-Haters Handbook has evidence from James Roskind who tried to make a yacc grammar for C++ - to a first approximation, an impossible thing to do due to a few goofy design decisions in the C++ grammar - and who said that every time when he tried to feed cfront input that would enlighten him with respect to some dark corner of the grammar, cfront crashed.)
- ilek 11y ago
  Huh? From your article: I should say right away, I haven't found anything crucial and I think there are three reasons why PVS-Studio hasn't found serious bugs The rest of the article doesn't seem to back up your claim really. It even says "The code is of high quality." Regardless I agree the article isn't very good, serious or otherwise. If it is serious it uses one anecdotal piece to make a sweeping claim on the productivity of programmers across nations...
  - _yosefk 11y ago
    They show bugs in cfront, trying to sell their product to C++ developers. They'll likely call cfront high quality. That said, Roskind's experience is more telling than the output of a static analyzer because generally and certainly with a compiler, actual testing shows orders of magnitude more issues than static analysis.

mkjaer 11y ago

I'll add COMAL to that list. I believe it has become somewhat obscure today, but still, it was developed by Danes too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMAL

interfixus 11y ago

Scandinavia as a whole has done alright on the programming front. Of the LAMP stack - which still runs a huge part of the web, though many of us have moved on - all but the 'A' originated here. Linux in Finland, MySql in Sweden, and php in Denmark. The output of course being styled in Norwegian css.

guytv 11y ago
Don't forget the Icelandic dalvik VM.