Traditionally, Computer Science is divided into two groups that complement each other: Hardware and Software. While the physical hardware (like the keyboard, CPU, mouse etc.) actually performs the work, the Software tells the Hardware how to do it. So the software comprises the collection of computer instructions and data that tells the computer how to work. The software itself is divided into Systems and Applications Software. The Programs that manage the computer system include the OS (Operating System), File Management Utilities, and DOD (Disk Operating System). Applications Software, or simply Apps, enable the User to complete the tasks, such as creating documents, spreadsheets, databases, online research, graphics designing, playing games and so on. These Apps can be complex, like the word processing software, which sets the boundary parameters for any word document. From line spacing to word fonts, style, margins, all fine details of a document are covered. Even color, headings and pictures are covered. The documents’ contents can be manipulated, so that copy, move, delete and change functions can be done easily. Typical Apps are Microsoft Word, the world’s most popular word processing software, which has all the functions described above. MS Word is part of the MS Office Suite, which also has famous Apps like Excel. Of the Graphics Apps, the Adobe Creative Suite can turn images into works of Art, while the Sony Audio Master Suite is used by music experts to create and produce the best Music. Web Browsers are also Apps, which can locate, retrieve, play and display Internet content. Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and of course the Internet Explorer, are all Web Browser Apps known the world over. Software Engineers, therefore, design Software, which may be any (or all) of the above. While hard skills like knowledge of programming languages are essential, soft skills like individual preferences and personality trends must also be cultivated. Modern Software Engineering is a team profession, and Engineers must be capable of leading the Team. The Most Famous Software Engineers have all been leaders of Men, who have brought a revolution into the world.
The Makings of A Software Engineer
The Art of Communication is essential. Reports to the Boss have to be written, objectives clarified to the Team, products must be explained and displayed to the Clients, groups of colleagues must be addressed, vendors must be selected and guided,…. the list is endless. The Software Engineer must be a skillful practitioner of the Art of Communication, whether via phone or email, face to face or WhatsApp. The Engineer must be able to split his or her attention across different modules of the same project or switch easily between projects. This is called Multitasking. Organization and Attention to detail are two of the other aspects that the Engineer must acquire before the Engineer can step out towards fame and fortune. The journey starts these days with a degree in Computer Engineering, but so close to the bone is this field’s run for Excellence, that generally only the most brilliant survive, guys who are prepared to invest and innovate, and it is from these ranks of fiercely obsessive young engineers, that the best emerge.
The Revolutionaries
The most famous of all Software Engineers have all been revolutionaries. Each of them has cut their own corners in a State of the Art field of Engineering. Let us start with John Carmack. Carmack is a specialist games creator. Among his most well-known are Doom and Quake. This extraordinary engineer does not have a degree, but his works are studied by students of software engineering. Dave Cutler holds a Bachelors degree and was DEC, Microsoft. He co-founded Agrippa-Ord. He is renowned by the OS created by him called Windows NT. Anders Hejlsberg is famous for creating programming languages like Turbo Pascal, Delphi, TypeScript and the commonly used C#. Hejlsberg, 59 years, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and is a Systems Architect at Microsoft. He is ranked the 22nd most influential Software Engineer of all times. Christopher Ahlberg is a Swedish Computer Scientist, who has been awarded the MIT TR100. He is internationally known for software like Spotfire and Recorded Future. Professor Thomas Sterling teaches Computer science at Indiana University. He is popularly called as the father of Beowulf Clusters, which he developed with Don Becker, as well as for his Petaflops Computing Architecture seminal research.
The Very Best
E-commerce has been the focus field for Max Levchin, who created PayPal, which now has a universal application. An Entrepreneur, he co-founded NetMeridian Software, SponsorNet New Media and Confinity. But PayPal wasn’t his only achievement. He is also the founder of the famous CAPTCHA TEST. Born in 1975, he founded PayPal in 1998, which was also the year he graduated. Little needs to be said about Mark Zuckerberg. Suffice it to say that Zuckerberg started creating Facebook in 2004 when he was still studying at Harvard University. Steve McConnel is the well-known Author of the finest Software Engineering textbooks such as Code Complete, Rapid Development and Software Estimation. Sundar Pichai was born on June 10th 1972 as Pichai Sundararajan, in Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India. He earned his B.Tech degree from The IIT or The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, his MS from Stanford University and MBA from The Wharton School. He is now the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. Satya Narayana Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft in 2014. Before this, he was Executive VP of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group. Born on August 19th 1967 in Hyderabad, India, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990. Steven Paul Jobs, known as just Steve Jobs, was an extraordinary American business magnate and founder of Apple Computer. Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finish software engineer, who invented Linux and created the Linux Kernel which is the basis for all other most used OSs like Android and Chrome. These last two are easily the most Famous Software Engineers of all time.