If we’re listing legendary programmers, second in the pantheon after Knuth: Edgar F Codd.
Unknown Programmer… hey, that’s me!
WAIT - Ruby On Rails guy and ID guy make #7, but Gosling doesn’t? This is a joke.
You really should change the post where you specify the dead programmers. People who don’t read the comments, don’t realize your point, and thinks that guys are really all dead.
what about men who haven’t seen a programer in their life,
know nothing about programming ,but studying abt computers in college.
i am one such guy.
what to do?
I would not like be programmer for ever. I’m a good programmer, I’ll hope have my own business
I use computer a lot. I have never been interested in programming. What do yo think guyz?
have been a professional programmer for 8 years. [still age >>what do you wanna do with your life?
Become a mathematician in the near future and discover something original, even if not at the level of my heroes like Newton, Gauss, Riemann.
That said I enjoy my work [programming] - even if I were to be lifelong professional programmer, I would still consider it a nice life from the career point of view.
are open source programmers amateur programmers? really?
i would think of myself as a 3. i think that almost everyone goes through stage 1. its just that some people might just get stuck at that stage, those can be classified as bad programmers.
Thank for information
I like to think that we all had a level one moment in our lives. Don’t you agree? 
I’d rather just be alive, period.
I’d like to think that on a good day I can reach level 4! Doesnt #2 seem to have a lot in common with #4? Can’t really tell the 2 apart.
Hmmm, 6 going on 7. This isn’t good.
Definitely missing Stallman and Torvalds on that list. And Tim Sweeney.
Would Dijkstra actually even consider himself a programmer?
Ahhh programming is fun, it’s a hobby and it sure beats having to spend large amounts to get someone else to do your changes for you.
Dijkstra is my personal Jesus. Everytime I code something, anything, I imagine him patting on my shoulder whenever I do something sensible and clearing his throat when I make some mistake. It’s reassuring.
LOL, should we come up with a campaign like…
What would Djikstra Do? ™
If you can write Hello World in 3 different programming languages with one line of code in dutch then you are a level 7 programmer. =)