This is a list of programmers notable for their contributions to software, either as original author or architect, or for later additions. All entries must already have associated articles. Some persons notable as computer scientists are included here because they work in program as well as research.
A Michael Abrash – program optimization and x86 assembly language Scott Adams – series of text adventures beginning in the late 1970s Tarn Adams – Dwarf Fortress Leonard Adleman – co-created RSA algorithm (being the A in that name), coined the term computer virus Alfred Aho – co-created AWK (being the A in that name), and main author of famous Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (Dragon book) Allan Alcorn – Pong Andrei Alexandrescu – author, expert on languages C++, D, and created the Loki library Frances Allen – optimizing compilers, program optimization, and parallel computing Paul Allen – Altair BASIC, Applesoft BASIC, cofounded Microsoft Eric Allman – sendmail, syslog Marc Andreessen – co-created Mosaic, cofounded Netscape Bruce Artwick – Microsoft Flight Simulator Jeremy Ashkenas – CoffeeScript programming language and Backbone.js Julian Assange – Surfraw, Rubberhose (file system), Strobe port scanner which influenced Nmap Bill Atkinson – QuickDraw, HyperCard Lennart Augustsson – languages (Lazy ML, Cayenne), compilers (HBC Haskell, parallel Haskell front end, Bluespec SystemVerilog early), LPMud pioneer, NetBSD device drivers
B Roland Carl Backhouse – computer program construction, algorithmic problem solving, ALGOL Adam Back – Hashcash John Backus – Fortran, BNF Lars Bak – virtual machine specialist Richard Bartle – MUD, with Roy Trubshaw, created MUDs Friedrich L. Bauer – Stack (data structure), Sequential Formula Translation, ALGOL, software engineering, Bauer–Fike theorem Kent Beck – created Extreme programming, cocreated JUnit Donald Becker – Linux Ethernet drivers, Beowulf clustering Brian Behlendorf – Apache HTTP Server, co-founder of The Apache Software Foundation Doug Bell – Dungeon Master series of video games Fabrice Bellard – created FFmpeg open codec library, QEMU virtualization tools Tim Berners-Lee – invented World Wide Web Daniel J. Bernstein – djbdns, qmail Pierre Bézier – Bézier curve, Bézier surface, Computer-aided manufacturing, UNISURF Eric Bina – cocreated Mosaic web browser Marc Blank – cocreated Zork Jim Blinn – Blinn–Phong reflection model Joshua Bloch – core Java language designer, lead the Java collections framework project Jonathan Blow – video games: Braid, The Witness Susan G. Bond – cocreated ALGOL 68-R Grady Booch – cocreated Unified Modeling Language Ed Boon – Mortal Kombat Alan H. Borning – human–computer interaction, object-oriented programming, constraint programming, programming languages, ThingLab Bert Bos – authored Argo web browser, co-authored Cascading Style Sheets Keith Bostic – nvi, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD Stephen R. Bourne – cocreated ALGOL 68C, created Bourne shell David Bradley – coder on the IBM PC project team who wrote the Control-Alt-Delete keyboard handler, embedded in all PC-compatible BIOSes Andrew Braybrook – video games Paradroid and Uridium Larry Breed – implementation of Iverson Notation (APL), co-developed APL\360, Scientific Time Sharing Corporation cofounder Jack Elton Bresenham – created Bresenham's line algorithm Dan Bricklin – cocreated VisiCalc, the first personal spreadsheet program Walter Bright – Digital Mars, First C++ compiler, authored D (programming language) Sergey Brin – cofounded Google Inc. Per Brinch Hansen (surname "Brinch Hansen") – RC 4000 multiprogramming system, operating system kernels, microkernels, monitors, concurrent programming, Concurrent Pascal, distributed computing & processes, parallel computing Richard Brodie – Microsoft Word Andries Brouwer – Hack, former maintainer of man pager, Linux kernel hacker Paul Buchheit – created Gmail Danielle Bunten Berry (Dani Bunten) – M.U.L.E., multiplayer video game and other noted video games Rod Burstall – languages COWSEL (renamed POP-1), POP-2, NPL, Hope; ACM SIGPLAN 2009 PL Achievement Award Vitalik Buterin – Ethereum Dries Buytaert – created Drupal
C Steve Capps – cocreated Macintosh and Newton John Carmack – first-person shooters Doom, Quake Edwin Catmull – co-founder of Pixar, Catmull–Rom spline, Catmull–Clark subdivision surface, texture mapping Vint Cerf – TCP/IP, NCP Timothy M. Chan – Chan's algorithm Donald D. Chamberlin – SQL David Chaum – blind signatures, International Association for Cryptologic Research, mix-net, electronic voting, Dining cryptographers protocol, privacy-enhancing technologies, and the godfather of digital currency Steve Chen – co-founder of YouTube, AVOS, and part of the PayPal Mafia Ward Christensen – wrote the first BBS (Bulletin Board System) system CBBS Edgar F. Codd – principal architect of relational model Bram Cohen – BitTorrent protocol design and implementation Alain Colmerauer – Prolog Richard W. Conway – compilers for CORC, CUPL, and PL/C; XCELL Factory Modelling System Alan Cooper – Visual Basic Fernando J. Corbató – Multics and Compatible Time-Sharing System Mike Cowlishaw – REXX and NetRexx, LEXX editor, image processing, decimal arithmetic packages Alan Cox – co-developed Linux kernel Brad Cox – Objective-C Mark Crispin – created IMAP, authored UW-IMAP, one of reference implementations of IMAP4 William Crowther – Colossal Cave Adventure Ward Cunningham – created Wiki concept Dave Cutler – architected RSX-11M, OpenVMS, VAXELN, DEC MICA, Windows NT Doug Cutting – Apache Hadoop, Apache Lucene, Apache Nutch
D Ole-Johan Dahl – cocreated Simula, object-oriented programming Ryan Dahl – created Node.js Wei Dai – Crypto++ library, b-money, VMAC Terry A. Davis – developer of TempleOS Jeff Dean – Spanner, Bigtable, MapReduce, TensorFlow L. Peter Deutsch – Ghostscript, Assembler for PDP-1, XDS-940 timesharing system, QED original co-author Robert Dewar – IFIP WG 2.1 member, chairperson, ALGOL 68; AdaCore cofounder, president, CEO Edsger W. Dijkstra – contributions to ALGOL, Dijkstra's algorithm, Go To Statement Considered Harmful, IFIP WG 2.1 member Matt Dillon – programmed various software including DICE and DragonflyBSD Jack Dorsey – created Twitter Martin Dougiamas – creator and lead developed Moodle Adam Dunkels – authored Contiki operating system, the lwIP and uIP embedded TCP/IP stacks, invented protothreads Pavel Durov — co-founding of VK and Telegram
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