Historical Figure in Computing

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” that quote by Alan Kay may be one of the most inspirational quotes that I have read. I believe that Alan Kay is the most interesting person in Computing Science, because he was one of the fathers of the idea of object-oriented programming. If I ever met Kay, I would simply ask him how he thought of the idea of OO programming. The abstract thinking and logic behind creating object-oriented programming astonishes me every time I think about it. So I would love to know his thinking process when he was working on the idea of it. Without Kay’s influence on the world, programming would be very, very different. Everything would run less efficiently and we most likely would not be as advanced in technology as we are today. Kay worked with Apple, Atari, Walt Disney Imagineering, and many other large companies, vastly improving their programs. Kay was immediately recognized for his outstanding accomplishments. Still, to this day, Kay’s biggest accomplishment was his help in the creation of object-oriented programming.  

Alan Kay by the age of three years old was able to read fluently, he also estimates that by the time he entered first grade, that he had read around 150 books. This is just one small example of the vast knowledge that Alan Kay holds. He alone revolutionized the programming world. The first OOP that came out was worked on by Alan Kay. It was called “Smalltalk-80.” It was unlike any other language at that time. Smalltalk was a complete environment. With Smalltalk’s OOP style, many other languages such as Java and C++ were created. Smalltalk was created while Kay was working with Apple, it was commercialized with the release of the Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers. He created the “Dynabook" concept which defined the conceptual basics for tablets and laptops computers. This also made Kay one of the first people to research mobile technology. 

Kay is one of the few pioneers that revolutionized the way we see programming today. Without his unique thinking and input on computer languages, we would not have the programs that we have today. Advancing technology would not be as easily done and we would not have all of the convenient technology such as: phones, applications, current OS power, etc. Kay’s power to invent and think outside of the box logically on his level, amazes me every time I think about it. He without a doubt is the most interesting contributor to the Computer Science field.    

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay#Awards_and_honors

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Object_Oriented_Programming