David A. Wheeler's Blog

Sun, 10 Apr 2011

Innovations update

I’ve made various updates to my list of The Most Important Software Innovations. I’ve added Distributed Version Control System (DVCS); these are all over now in the form of git, Mercurial (hg), Bazaar, Monotone, and so on, but these were influenced by the earlier BitKeeper, which was in turn influenced by the earlier Teamware (developed by Sun starting in 1991). As is often the case, “new” innovations are actually much older than people realize. I also added make, originally developed in 1977, and quicksort, developed in 1960-1961 by C.A.R. (Tony) Hoare. I’ve also improved lots of material that was already there, such as a better description of the history of the remote procedure call (RPC).

So please enjoy The Most Important Software Innovations!

path: /misc | Current Weblog | permanent link to this entry