Link: Sun Microsystems Contrarian Minds: Guy Steele.

“I’m now not convinced that a single programming language can serve everyone’s needs, because the needs are so diverse.”
- Guy Steele

I was reading this month DDJ and saw that they had awarded Guy Steele the 2005 Excellence In Programming Award. Guy has worked on many of languages I’ve used: C, Java, Scheme, Lisp. One of my favorite programming books has Steele as a coauthor:

“C: A Reference Manual (5th Edition)” (Samuel P. Harbison, Guy L. Steele)

I used an earlier version of this book to learn C 8 years ago favoring it over the universal favorite K&R. He is also the primary author of Common Lisp: The Language. He had a hand in R5RS (which is one of the nicest language definitions to read) and the Java Language Specification.

He is now working on a new language Fortress. I’ve googled for it but there isn’t much available. I’m looking forward to seeing what new ideas it will have. I have a feeling it is a language I will use in the future.