DAT: ACM Distinguished Engineer

This is rather cool. As noted by Nat Torkington, Dave Thomas has just been recognized by the ACM as a Distinguished Engineer.

Dave was the founder of OTI, which after it was acquired by IBM eventually became the core development team for Eclipse. Other than my family, he’s probably had more influence on my life than anyone: professor, matchmaker with my wife (long story) and kick-ass boss (both figuratively and literally) for ten very formative years. It’s great to see him recognized in this way.

And for those who remember the really early days of OO programming, there is certainly some irony in having Dave Thomas’ and Dave Ungar’s names beside each other in the list. Watching those guys spar at the early OOPSLAs was really good sport.

Also, as Nat pointed out, Robert Lefkowitz (aka r0ml) was awarded the same honor. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because r0ml is one of our keynote speakers at our upcoming EclipseCon. I saw him speak in three different sessions at OSCON 2006, and I am really looking forward to his talk. He is one of the best speakers I have ever seen.

And along the lines of continuing Denis’ education, I would like to point out that I immediately noticed a number of names on the list as Old Dudes Who Know Smalltalk. It’s nice to see that the ACM recognize those who “get it”.

1. Dave Thomas
2. Robert Lefkowitz
3. Laura Hill
4. Larry Constantine
5. Dave Ungar (ok, he invented Self, but he definitely knew Smalltalk)

I would be willing to bet that there are a couple of other Smalltalk dudes on the list whose name I just didn’t recognize. Feel free to comment on who I missed.