Python, PHP, JavaScript and other creators of web technology. Meet founders and inventors of popular programming languages and frameworks.

It may come as a surprise to many, but at least half of the programming languages were not created in the United States. However, most people involved in the digital landscape, technologists, programmers using these technologies do not know anything about their founders. That’s why, in our latest article, we decided to cite some of the most important figures from the world of technology and talk about their history.  

So let’s get to the point of this article.

Python Creator: Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum, the creator of the well-known Python programming language, was born in the Netherlands on January 31, 1956. At the University of Amsterdam in 1982, he received a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science. Over the years, he worked at research centres, including the Center Wiskunde & Informatica, where he developed the ABC programming language.

Van Rossum began designing Python in 1989. At first, he treated the project as a hobbyist activity after work. He worked on this side project for nearly 10 years. Python was released in version 1.0 in 1994 as an open-source project, which means that any person can modify and improve it freely. Van Rossum’s vision was to make the project intuitive. Over the years, Python has grown in popularity, and today it is one of the most widely used languages in the world. According to the TIOBE index (a survey of the popularity of programming languages), Python was in the fourth position in December 2017.

Interesting fact: the name Python comes from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” – a comedy series that aired in the 1970s.

Van Rossum is the head of the Python Software Foundation, an organization that promotes the preservation and development of this technology. Guido has also received the title of “Benevolent Dictator for Life”, which emphasizes how important and influential he is in the world of this technology. It also gives him the ability to make key decisions on contentious issues related to Python.

Guido van Rossum is also responsible for creating Mondrian (a code review tool used by Google) and Rietveld. He has been a resident of the United States since 1995. For seven years from 2005, he was an employee of Google, and since January 2013, he was associated with Dropbox, where he holds the position of Principal Engineer. In 2021, he announced that he was joining the Developer Division at Microsoft.

PHP Creator: Rasmus Lerdorf

Rasmus Lerdorf is a programmer who was born on November 22, 1968, in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland. He is responsible for creating the first two versions of the PHP programming language. Lerdorf also participated in the development of subsequent versions of the language.

The original version of PHP, the Personal Home Page was created in 1994. Lerdorf created a set of Perl scripts to monitor Internet users visiting his website. When the traffic exceeded his expectations, he rewrote them in C while adding new features. Before long, he made it available to a wider audience so that people could use it on their sites. PHP Tools 1.0 was released on June 8, 1995. This was when Lerdorf made its source code public. The PHP language was created for designing websites and simple web applications.

According to Rasmus, programming is boring and tedious, so he decided to create his language. It was supposed to make web design more dynamic and faster. Many years have passed since the original version of PHP, and the language has been repeatedly changed and improved. The latest version is PHP 8, which was released on November 26, 2020. Currently, PHP is one of the dominant technologies in the market and even covers about 75% of all web domains. Facebook was written in PHP, which was then translated using a proprietary tool – HipHop for PHP to C++.

Rasmus Lerdorf has worked at Yahoo since 2002 for over 7 years as a Distinguished Engineer, where he oversaw the architecture and security issues of the Yahoo platform. From 2010 to 2017, he also worked at WePay. He has also managed startups such as Etsy and Room77 since their inception.

Interesting fact: MIT Technology Review magazine listed him as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

JavaScript Creator: Brendon Eich

Brendon Eich is a programmer of American descent, born on July 4, 1961, in Pittsburgh. In 1995, he created the scripting programming language JavaScript. Its first version hit the market after only 10 days.

JavaScript was supposed to make web pages more interactive and dynamic. Interestingly, the name of this technology came about as a result of a marketing gimmick. While developing JavaScript, Eich was doing press for Netscape, which decided to capitalize on the worldwide success of Java software. Despite appearances, the two technologies Java and JavaScript, are not related. The only thing they have in common is that every word was popular at the time.

JavaScript combined elements of several other programming languages, and its application was to create dynamic web pages. Over the years, it started to be used for designing web and desktop applications as well. It was developed as a scripting language for a virtual machine to provide mechanisms for communication with the outside world. The most popular virtual machine is the browser, but JavaScript interpreters can be found in Adobe Acrobat or Photoshop.

After leaving Netscape in 2003, Eich joined Mozilla as Chief Architect. He went through his entire career path there, as he was elected CEO of the company in 2014. Brendan Eich became the CEO of Mozilla on March 24, 2014, but he stepped down after 2. This is due to the infamous notoriety that he covered himself with after the homophonic statements that the browser users revealed. It came to light that he supported a legislative initiative that sought to prevent the introduction of same-sex marriage. Since 2015, he has been the CEO of Brave Software, which created the ad-free web browser.

Interesting fact: Within 30 seconds of launching, he raised nearly $35 million from the community to develop the Brave browser.

As you can see from the map above, the creators of popular technologies are not just concentrated in one place. Even in faraway Greenland, Great Minds are born who can influence the work of people around the world.

Vue.js Creator: Evan You

The creator of Vue.js is Evan You, a well-known personality among developers, as he is also behind other recognizable projects in the tech world, including Angular.js. You are a young Chinese man who went to the United States to study. However, he did his bachelor’s degree in Art History. It wasn’t until he finished the undergraduate degree that he realized it wasn’t what he wanted to do. He chose Design and Technology as his major, where he first learned to design applications and interfaces.

You had the opportunity to participate in Program Five from Google Creative Lab. At Google, he used Angular extensively, which he really appreciated, but he also saw the potential for change. So after hours, he created his project, which was supposed to combine all the advantages of Angular and correct what was wrong. In July 2013, Vue.js was created, which has gained a lot of popularity over time.

Vue.js is a very flexible, intuitive, and transparent framework distinguished by many add-ons and features that others do not have. The big advantage of this technology is its continuous development, thanks to the ever-growing community.

Vue.js, along with React.js and Angular.js, is the most popular JavaScript-based frameworks for building dynamic user interfaces. This technology allows you to create both simple components, advanced and web applications, and even mobile applications.

React.js Creator: Jordan Walke

The developer of ReactJS, a popular JavaScript application, is Jordan Walke, a graduate of the University of Washington. Today, React.js is being used on giant platforms such as Netflix, Imgur, and PayPal. In Facebook, Jordan Walke was employed at this time, React.js was founded in 2011. The JavaScript library is called React.js, which is used to create dynamic interfaces. Walke aimed at streamlining the interface construction process so that developers can find it more simple and easy.

React.js was originally meant to use only on Facebook, but it was straightforward to watch the light of day. It was launched in 2013 as an open-source, and it was a turning point. Since then, popularity has increased exponentially.

Walke recently revealed that he was leaving Facebook after more than a decade of working as a computing developer. However, in a Twitter article, he stated that he did not withdraw, but he intends to start his own company. The precise specifics have, however, not been revealed.

Laravel Creator: Taylor Otwell

Taylor Otwell is a US software developer best known for the PHP web platform in Laravel. To build a more sophisticated alternative to the CodeIgniter platform, Otwell developed Laravel, which lacked features, including built-in user authentication support and permissions. On 9 June 2011, Laravel’s first beta was announced. Little Rock, Arkansas, is located in Otwell.

Laravel 2 was published by the author and by the group in September 2011. Important new features included controller support, Laravel 2 as a completely MVC-compliant, built-in IoC, and a template framework known as the Blade. In Laravel 2, third-party kit assistance has been deleted.

Currently, Laravel is launched in version 7 on 3 March 2020. New features such as Laravel sanctum, customized elocution casts, blade marks, fluid string operations, and road model linking enhancements are part of the latest edition.

Interesting fact: Furthermore, he created laracasts.com where he hosts Laravel video tutorials and other web technologies.

Symfony Crator: SensioLabs

SensioLabs is the developer of the popular PHP framework – Symfony. The company offers various types of services and training. The company developing many e-solutions for Symfony for programmers and enterprises to improve the quality, productivity, direction, and deployment of PHP applications, such as SensioLabsInsight, launched in 2014.

Interesting fact: The name SensioLabs was created from the Spanish word “sencillo” meaning “simple”.

Most interesting facts about the company:

• The company has over 100 staff and a network of consultants in over 20 countries.
• Several offices in France and Germany, as well as remote staff from all over the world
• 5 million euros in round-A funding (December 2013) and a 2019 partnership with Smile
• Billions of Symfony updates have occurred, with the billionth update occurring on September 5, 2017.
• +25 million unique visitors to our Open Source and Business websites
• There are over 600,000 Symfony developers worldwide.

Angular Creator: Miśko Hevery

The Angular history begins in 2009, with Miško Hevery and Adam Abrons working together on an hours-long side-project. In October 2010, GitHub publicly released the first stable version of the AngularJS, release 0.9.0, under the MIT license and had taken a great deal since.

Misko has created a forum to deal with HTML deficiencies by bringing suggestions and best practices from other previously diverse libraries. Angular’s solution was a good one because its features made Misko popular with other web developers. But it needed a name that Adam Abrons had to shoulder to get the project off the ground. He thought that because HTML uses curly brackets, their common “side-project,” which means “angular,” could only be called angular. It wasn’t long, and the word got flesh. Www.GetAngular.com has been licensed.

Miśko Hevery is now an Agile Coach at Google, where he trains Google staff to keep an automated testing community at a high standard. In the past, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Intel, or Xerox have worked for him. He has been a specialist in web apps in Java, JavaScript, Flex, ActionScript, and many other technologies through these activities.

WordPress Creator: Matthew Mullenweg

Matthew Mullenweg is an American entrepreneur, born on January 11, 1984, in Houston. He is known for creating the free and open-source web software WordPress, which The WordPress Foundation currently operates. He attended High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where he studied jazz saxophone. However, in 2004, he dropped out and studied at the University of Houston to find CNET Networks. He worked until he founded Automattic in late 2005, which includes WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, VaultPress, IntenseDebate, Crowdsignal, and Tumblr.

His history with WordPress began when he went on a trip to Washington, DC. He wanted to share photos of his friends and family, so he posted them on Movable Type. He then noticed how many limitations this software had, so he started creating his own. Furthermore, he noticed that the b2 / catalogue blog system was released under the GNU General Public License. So he started to develop a new system based on it.

In a short period, Mike Little joined the work. It was together with him that Mullenweg created the first version of WordPress. At that time, Movable Type – a popular blogging system – became more expensive, so users started looking for something new. This is what the success of WordPress was based on. Many users then tried the new platform.

Interesting fact: WordPress version 1.5, which was released in February 2005, already had over 900,000 downloads.