I’ve been developing for a while but I’ll never be as good as them and that’s a fact.
As far as programmers and computer scientists, we have to acknowledge the legends that came before us. The ones you learn about in school like Ada Lovelace, James Gosling, Richard Stallman, Bill Gates, Grace Hopper, Guido van Rossum, Rasmus Lerdorf, Ken Thompson, Steve Wozniak, Brian Kernighan, Brendan Eich, Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Page, Bjarne Stroustrup, Dennis Ritchie, and my personal hero is Linus Torvalds.
So digging deeper and adapting to the current zeitgeist, I’ve been influenced by newer developers that might not be as famous as the old school pioneers of computer science but they still deserve a proper shout out and honorable mention. I think of it as the Grammy or Academy awards for nerds and geeks. I think as humble and intelligent as these new programmers are, they probably wouldn’t care that much if they got an award. I think they would just be happy that people recognize their code and inspire others as the electric torch beams forward until the end of the world.
In random order:
John Resig, the creator of JQuery. He made Javascript easier and made every developer’s life less stressful. How the fuck would you be able to do anything awesome in Javascript with a few lines of code? He’s the Master ninja of all ninjas.
Miško Hevery, the creator of Angularjs. There are a lot of contributors so you have to give everyone credit but you know he’s bad ass when it comes to the ng-repeat model and much much more. Making that JSON go to work. Only time will tell when his work becomes highlighted as a historical landmark for future developers.
Adam Khoury, A creative web developer and programmer of almost everything. If you want to learn how to have fun and code, this guy knows and is really easy to understand. He has a shit load of videos on youtube and is a Samurai when it comes to php. He has thousands of simple ways to make scripts useful for practical reasons for normal everyday use.
Derek Banas, an amazing advanced programmer. I’ve learned a lot about Android development and other topic. He’s very technical, sometimes a bit too serious but he gives a very full and detailed understanding about a wide variety of subjects and programming.
Bucky Roberts, Learn the basics and get the ball rolling. If you’re new to web development, this guy will be your best friend. He’s a self taught programmer and developer but he’s got some good points and a smart way of getting it done easily. At first I thought this guy was some drunk trucker that was trying to do the whole make money quick scheme but he’s way more sophisticated and intelligent than some of the (suit and tie) developers that I meet in Redmond (Microsoft-land).
Paul Irish, This dude is pretty much the Father of HTML5. He’s an amazing front end developer and an expert when it come to Google’s Chrome Browser and a lot more relating to the proper HTML5 development and web components.
Alexis Goldstein, a multi-talented front-end developer with extraordinary Ninja skills in CSS3. She’s also an advocate for financial reform in Wall street and has taught at various events that encourage more women into the field of computer science, Girl Develop it.
John Lindquist aka Egghead. The Angularjs champion and the Javascript Shogun of our time. Most of his hardcore Angularjs and javascript lessons require premium memberships but the free introduction courses are simple, short and easy to understand. Comparing all of the javascript developers out there today, I think he makes it the easiest to understand and the logic is very clear.