Anders Hejlsberg
Anders Hejlsberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 2, 1960 Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Occupation(s) | Software engineer, programming language designer |
| Known for | Creating Turbo Pascal, principal architect of Delphi, lead designer of C#, creator of TypeScript |
Anders Hejlsberg (; ; born December 2, 1960) is a renowned Danish software engineer recognized for his role in designing prominent programming languages and development environments. He created Turbo Pascal and served as the principal architect behind Delphi. Presently, he oversees the design of C# at Microsoft and plays a significant role in the advancement of TypeScript.
Early life
Hejlsberg was born in Copenhagen and pursued Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark. In 1980, he crafted a Pascal compiler initially released as Blue Label Software Pascal for the Nascom-2 microcomputer. He subsequently redeveloped it for CP/M and DOS platforms under the names Compas Pascal and later PolyPascal. This compiler was licensed to Borland and incorporated into an integrated development environment, evolving into the Turbo Pascal system—an influential compiler inspired by Niklaus Wirth’s "Tiny Pascal."
At Borland
Turbo Pascal achieved commercial success under Borland’s management. In 1989, Hejlsberg relocated to California to assume the position of Chief Engineer at Borland, where he continued enhancing Turbo Pascal and acted as the chief architect for Borland Delphi, which followed Turbo Pascal.
At Microsoft
Hejlsberg joined Microsoft in 1996, where he developed the J++ language along with the Windows Foundation Classes. He advanced to become a Microsoft Distinguished Engineer and later a Technical Fellow. Since 2000, he has led the architectural design of the C# programming language. In 2012, he introduced TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript, further expanding Microsoft’s suite of developer tools.
Awards
For his work on Turbo Pascal, Delphi, C#, and the Microsoft .NET Framework, Hejlsberg received the 2001 Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award.
In 2007, together with Shon Katzenberger, Scott Wiltamuth, Todd Proebsting, Erik Meijer, Peter Hallam, and Peter Sollich, he was honored with a Technical Recognition Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement for their contributions to C#.
Published works
- The C# Programming Language, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-321-33443-4, June 9, 2006
- The C# Programming Language, 3rd edition, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-321-56299-2, October 18, 2008
- The C# Programming Language, 4th edition, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBNs 0-321-74176-5 and 978-0-321-74176-9, October 2010
External links
- Archived InfoWorld/JavaWorld article (1997) covering Hejlsberg’s transition to Microsoft, highlighting an initial signing bonus of $500,000 which doubled to $1 million after Borland’s counteroffer; Hejlsberg departed Borland in October 1996.
- The C# Design Process
- The Trouble with Checked Exceptions
- Delegates, Components and Simplexity
- Versioning, Virtual and Override
- Contracts and Interoperability
- Inappropriate Abstractions
- Generics in C#, Java and C++
- CLR Design Choices
- Microsoft's Hejlsberg on .NET and LINQ technologies
- Interview with Microsoft Chief Architect Anders Hejlsberg
- C#: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
- Video interview at Channel9
- Computerworld interview on C#
Videos
- Anders Hejlsberg - An Introduction to TypeScript
- The Life and Career of Anders Hejlsberg
- Anders Hejlsberg - Exploring the History of Computing at the Microsoft Museum
- Anders Hejlsberg - The Advantages of Generics Explained
- Anders Hejlsberg - Data Programming in C# 3.0
- Anders Hejlsberg - The Origins of the Common Language Runtime (CLR)
- Anders Hejlsberg - The .NET Show: Overview of the .NET Framework
- Anders Hejlsberg - The .NET Show: Programming with C#
- Anders Hejlsberg - Additional Perspectives from C#'s Lead Architect (Birthday Tribute #3)
- Anders Hejlsberg - LINQ Explained
- Anders Hejlsberg - Whiteboard Discussion
- Anders Hejlsberg - Insights on LINQ and Functional Programming
- Recognizing Technical Excellence: The C# Development Team
- Anders Hejlsberg - Prospects for C#
- Anders Hejlsberg - Programming Languages Moving Forward (JAOO Aarhus 2008)
- Future Directions for C# and Visual Basic (PDC 2010)
- Retrospective on C# (Microsoft Build 2019)