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Ask HN: Who is the best programmer you know?

4 points by alegeaa 4y ago

Could you point me in the direction of the best programmer you know? Please drop their LinkedIn or profile here. Thank you!

h2odragon 4y ago
https://bellard.org/ https://bellard.org/
brodouevencode 4y ago
Someone that has no real internet presence, but here are the things I've tried to mimic from him: * immense domain knowledge * accounts for operations (in a myriad of ways) * code comments are succinct and easy to read * clever, but not too clever * uses common tooling * is a better architect than others with that job title * communicates well and is a genuinely nice guy
- gaws 4y ago
  I assume you know this person IRL?
  - brodouevencode 4y ago
    Yep, he was an engineer that fell into an architecture role.
- paulcole 4y ago
  I'll second this answer and expand on this: > communicates well The best people I work with do what they say they will do. Additionally, your entire answer (generally) applies to pretty much any field, not just programming. But I'll also add on that great professionals understand and accept how their role supports/fits into the goals of the business.
- ithrow 4y ago
  What does 'common tooling' mean?
  - brodouevencode 4y ago
    Tooling (of several kinds) that is easily available - everything from editors to CICD. I recall having this conversation with him in which he explained that a large part of his job was mentoring/educating/teaching younger engineers. The example he used was in VIM - minimal custom settings and scripts so that it easily translated to others (iirc the only plugin he used was NerdTree). Keeping things basic makes it easier to teach.
speedgoose 4y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
ineedausername 4y ago
Terry Davis of course what question is this.
- thinkingemote 4y ago
  May be rest in peace.
- shrimp_emoji 4y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyFvcQidvI&t=94s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyFvcQidvI&t=94s
- j4hdufd8 4y ago
  Thank you
mikewarot 4y ago
Ward Christensen did some amazing things in the 1970 & 80s. There was once a shortest useful program contest, his entry was 2 bytes long[1] When he lost the source to a program he wrote, he created ReSource, a disassembler[2] that got forked a few times over and eventually gave us the NSA's GHIDRA He was stuck at home because of a snow storm, and with Randy Suess, created one of the first BBS systems, and open sourced it.[3] [1] https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/underground/BBSes/CBBS/1992/920402.ch https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/underground/BBSes/CBBS/199... [2] https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-January/074143.html https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-January/... [3] http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20computerized%20BBS%20-%20ward%20christensen.pdf http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20compu...
arnold_palmur 4y ago
Martin Thompson
alegeaa 4y ago
Thanks!
joshxyz 4y ago
Augusta Ada Lovelace

4 points by alegeaa 4y ago

Could you point me in the direction of the best programmer you know? Please drop their LinkedIn or profile here. Thank you!

h2odragon 4y ago

https://bellard.org/ https://bellard.org/

brodouevencode 4y ago

Someone that has no real internet presence, but here are the things I've tried to mimic from him: * immense domain knowledge * accounts for operations (in a myriad of ways) * code comments are succinct and easy to read * clever, but not too clever * uses common tooling * is a better architect than others with that job title * communicates well and is a genuinely nice guy

gaws 4y ago
I assume you know this person IRL?
- brodouevencode 4y ago
  Yep, he was an engineer that fell into an architecture role.
paulcole 4y ago
I'll second this answer and expand on this: > communicates well The best people I work with do what they say they will do. Additionally, your entire answer (generally) applies to pretty much any field, not just programming. But I'll also add on that great professionals understand and accept how their role supports/fits into the goals of the business.
ithrow 4y ago
What does 'common tooling' mean?
- brodouevencode 4y ago
  Tooling (of several kinds) that is easily available - everything from editors to CICD. I recall having this conversation with him in which he explained that a large part of his job was mentoring/educating/teaching younger engineers. The example he used was in VIM - minimal custom settings and scripts so that it easily translated to others (iirc the only plugin he used was NerdTree). Keeping things basic makes it easier to teach.

speedgoose 4y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

ineedausername 4y ago

Terry Davis of course what question is this.

thinkingemote 4y ago
May be rest in peace.
shrimp_emoji 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyFvcQidvI&t=94s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyFvcQidvI&t=94s
j4hdufd8 4y ago
Thank you

mikewarot 4y ago

Ward Christensen did some amazing things in the 1970 & 80s. There was once a shortest useful program contest, his entry was 2 bytes long[1] When he lost the source to a program he wrote, he created ReSource, a disassembler[2] that got forked a few times over and eventually gave us the NSA's GHIDRA He was stuck at home because of a snow storm, and with Randy Suess, created one of the first BBS systems, and open sourced it.[3] [1] https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/underground/BBSes/CBBS/1992/920402.ch https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/underground/BBSes/CBBS/199... [2] https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-January/074143.html https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-January/... [3] http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20computerized%20BBS%20-%20ward%20christensen.pdf http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20compu...

arnold_palmur 4y ago

Martin Thompson

alegeaa 4y ago

Thanks!

joshxyz 4y ago

Augusta Ada Lovelace