Now there is some argument bait--who is the better programmer, Bill Gates or Gary Kildall.
back
3 comments
Bill Gates and early Microsoft were revered for their ability to commercialize software - not their ability to write the best code.
Gary was probably a better programmer. Bill is undoubtedly better from a business standpoint.
Gates is rumored to have scored a perfect 800 on the math portion or his SAT. He was studying Math at Harvard and published a paper in 'Discrete Mathematics' despite having dropped out before finishing undergrad:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi... (pay wall, but you can see the abstract)
I think there's reason to believe he could have been an outstanding programmer. Has anybody read the source code for a program verifiably written by Gates? Was Donkey.bas really written by him?
I do not know enough about his background to say one way or another whether he was a great programmer, but getting an 800 on the SAT math section isn't exactly a legendary achievement. It is weighted so that the number of people getting an 800 is not insignificant.
That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800. This wasn't true when Gates took it - perfect meant perfect then.
At my undergrad, something like 1 in 10 incoming freshmen had perfect SAT scores, and I know a couple of folks at Google with perfect scores as well.
"That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800."
Not true, for the math anyway. You can get a few wrong on the verbal section and still get an 800, and don't ask me how the writing works.
In any case, the effects of the 1994 recentering on higher-end scores (for whatever they're worth) are greatly exaggerated.
He was an outstanding programmer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_wri...
And this is what I had in mind when I suggesged "Argument bait". My own opinion is that they were both very good, with skill in different areas.
IMHO, Bill seems to be a borderline psycho that could do anything as a businessman.
His DoJ deposition tapes are amazing to watch.
got any link to that tapes?
Bill: Best all rounder.
Which is more important - good programming or good business skills?
How are you defining importance?
Define 'defining'.
Are you kidding us with the semantic gymnastics? What do you think 'important' in this case means?
Well, if the goal in mind is to get rich, the clear answer in my eyes is that business skills would be more 'important'. But business people can't make tools out of scratch like programmers can.
Sorry but I think I was valid.
The question should have been important for what goal, not how do you define importance. The latter is unclear, since it seems to be asking for the definition of the word itself.
In the context of "argument bait", business skills are not part of the question.