Today, coding and programming are skills that every person out there needs to learn, not just because they make finding a job easier, but because they help in the journey of understanding this world by improving problem-solving skills and logical thinking. All the companies now search for people with some skills in programming even if they will not be in tech-related positions, just because they can think critically when facing any problem and collaborate to solve it. If you are interested to know more about the top programmers out there, keep reading this blog.

Top Programmers to Remember in 2024

There are different programmers out there who have managed to leave their footprints with their creations and innovations. Some of these programmers created things that shaped the world of programming and coding, such as creating a programming language that programmers are now using.

Those who are remembered for their creations usually inspire others with their work, so these programmers inspired millions of those who are now learning how to code or those who started to take their initial steps in this world.

Here are some of the world programmers who we should remember:

  • Dennis Ritchie

When people talk about Dennis Ritchie, they consider him one of those legends who managed to shape the digital era, and this goes back to the fact that he is the one who created the C programming language. Ritchie also created the Unix Operating System with Ken Thompson, which they both received the Turing Award from ACM for in 1983, the Hamming Medal from the IEEE in 1990, and the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 1999.

With C Programming, there would have been no UNIX, Windows, Linux, C++, Google Chrome, Firefox, PlayStation, Xbox, as well as lots of other software devices. We could say that about 90% of the applications in the world are written in C Programming language, and that’s how Dennis Ritchie shaped the world since creating it.

  • James Gosling

James Gosling is a Canadian computer scientist who has been awarded the Honor of Canada for his achievements that included inventing Java, which is one of the most important programming languages out there, as well as the virtual machine and compiler that went with it, and that was back in 1994. Gosling also wrote a variety of applications and contributed to a number of software projects that include NeWS and Gosling Emacs.

The ‘Father of Java Programming Language’ – as he was famously known – was also elected to be the Foreign Associate Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering for the amount of successful work he provided the world with.

  • Linus Torvalds

If you are into programming or still learning how to code then you definitely know about Git. Git is a distributed control system (open source) that is now used worldwide and which was created by Linux Torvalds. Linux was also the one who designed the Linux Kernel operating system, and he is the inventor and director of the Linux Kernel.

Being a hard worker – he designed the Linux Kernel operating system in his dorm in university – he received several awards. Linus was honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) Pioneer Award in 1998, he was also listed as ‘one of the top 100 innovators, under the age of 35 in the world’ in 1999 by MIT Technology Review TR100, and in 2000 he received the Lovelace Medal by the British Computer Society. Along with Shinya Yamanaka, Torvalds was honored with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland.

Adding to his achievements, Linus Torvalds is also the one who created the revision control system GIT as well as the diving log software Subsurface.

  • Anders Hejlsberg

Andres Hejlsberg is the one who created the famous programming language C#. In addition to that, Hejlsberg also co-designed several popular, successful programming languages and development tools. Among the several achievements that we should mention for Anders Hejlsberg, it is important to mention that he was the original author for Turbo Pascal and the chief architect for Delphi.

At the current time, Ander Hejlsberg is working as the lead architect of C# for Microsoft and the core developer on TypeScript.

  • Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee is the British genius behind the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1989. If we would mention Berners-Lee for fundamental technologies, we would definitely mention these three: URL, HTML, and HTTP.

In addition to introducing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee was also the one who implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol client and server via the internet.

There were several awards that Tim Berners-Lee received for the incredible work he managed to do, such as the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering that he received along with other five internet and web pioneers, and he also received the 2016 ACM Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web.

  • Guido Van Rossum

One of the most important programming languages out there that people are more interested in learning about is Python. Guido Van Rossum is a Dutch computer programmer who is famously known for being the author of Python. Van Rossum is still overseeing the development process of Python and is still taking decisions and making input whenever needed.

Guido Van Rossum worked for Google from 2005 to 2012, and then in 2013 he started working for Dropbox.

There are several other important and famous computer scientists and developers out there who have left their footprints in the world of technology and who we should always remember and refer to their achievements and awards.

It is always interesting to know who developed the famous programming languages and who were behind the innovations and creations that are making life much easier for us today. It is even interesting to learn about how they managed to come up with such ideas, the time of hard work they put into their projects, as well as the experience they gained along the way. There are lots of famous companies and organizations out there which we know about and which helped lots of those programmers in becoming who they are today, such as Google and Microsoft for example.

You could always learn more about programming and start your coding journey with RoboGarden courses today. You could learn more about these courses here.