[janotte]

IMO no top 10 list that doesn't include Donald Knuth is taking things seriously.

This is the guy who sat down to write 'THE' comprehensive work on Computer Science. I think even he agrees he failed but the attempt was mighty and unparalleled in my opinion.

How many people get their 'chair' named after their 'book'?
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Donald_Knuth

And he features in one of the great IT stories of all time

http://folklore.org/...p;detail=medium

But I wouldn't nominate any of the other CS people mentioned (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc are not in this category) to be dropped of either so it's a hard one.

[ajwsurfer]

Quote

I wonder why nobody has mentioned Edsger W. Dijkstra yet.

Uh, because not a lot of German people are posting

This post has been edited by ajwsurfer: 23 January 2008 - 01:25 PM

[neonfire]

It might a stretch, but I think Woz should be included. It was he who created the first "user-friendly" PC, even if it was in a box of wood. Without him, computers may never have become a tool for people other than business folk, and whoever else wears a plain black suit everyday. Jobs was just an amazing salesman, Woz had the idea and the ability to make something great, and Jobs had the ability to make other people see this idea as something great.

Just to be fair, Bill Gates did make a form of BASIC for the Altair, oh, and spreadsheets!

[1lacca]

I am not sure about Woz, but for me he is more like an engineer, but I might be wrong here.

[Dilerious]

He may of been the first to create the "user-friendly" pc, but someone was bound to come and steal.. oh... create the idea at one point

[busta5000]

This is really interesting but you didn't mention the most powerfull computer scientists in the world who are bill gates the builder of the operating system Windows & owner of the company Microsoft. & Steve jobs the creator of the operating system Tiger who is the owner of MAC.

[MorphiusFaydal]

busta5000, on 9 Mar, 2008 - 08:58 AM, said:

This is really interesting but you didn't mention the most powerfull computer scientists in the world who are bill gates the builder of the operating system Windows & owner of the company Microsoft. & Steve jobs the creator of the operating system Tiger who is the owner of MAC.

Gates didn't write Windows though. Nor did Jobs write OS X. Both of them are excellent businessmen.

[1lacca]

Busta5000: next time please read the whole thread before writing something like this, because they were mentioned, and also disqualified for the same reasons that MorphiusFaydal wrote above.

[captainhampton]

skyhawk133, on 18 Dec, 2007 - 08:21 AM, said:

In my eyes, these are the top 10 computer scientist picks for most influential:[list]
[*]Vinton Gray Cerf - 'Father of the Internet', Co-Inventor TCP/IP

I believe what Skyhawk MEANT to say instead of Vinton was actually Al Gore. Honest mistake he is used to being undercredited what with his recent killing of manbearpig which almost went unnoticed. Certainly one of the greats that will never be fully recognized ::sigh::

[spearfish]

Why no Rasmus Lerdorf?

[Mitman]

thats so funny...why no bill gates or steve jobs

[1lacca]

<sarcasm>
Why no Julius Ceasar, he made a cipher or what....
</sarcasm>

[spearfish]

The Caesar shift --- incredibly simple, but brilliant. Unfortunately it's thought of as kiddish today because we're overexposed to it. But had you never seen it before (or know that I was using it), you probably wouldn't be able to know what vjkn ofcpu.

Cryptographers have their place in the great books --- just not as computer scientists.

[MorphiusFaydal]

Mitman, on 13 Mar, 2008 - 09:19 AM, said:

thats so funny...why no bill gates or steve jobs

We already said: They didn't do anything. Gates may have contributed to very early versions of DOS, but it was minimal at best, and Jobs isn't a coder. They're the "faces" for their companies. Astute businessmen, not computer scientists.

[spearfish]

Still, I wish my face could be worth billions of dollars.