> one can be employed to hack on some of the most used languages and compilers without having a PhD, and these examples strengthen it. Of course. You can most

> one can be employed to hack on some of the most used languages and compilers without having a PhD, and these examples strengthen it. Of course. You can most anything without a degree, with very few exceptions (see: the article). But the degreed : undegreed and phd : nonphd ratios in language design/compiler implementation are much higher than in software development more generally. The same is true of other technically challenging things. If you agree with that observation, then I think we're violently agreeing or you're reacting to the tone rather than the substance of my post. > Would you care to provide them? Anecdata, and bearing in mind that "originator of a language" is a very, very small subset of all people working on compilers / language design (and that even there, I think my observation holds -- especially for degreed : undegreed, and probably even for phd : nonphd). And that compiler/language design is only one very small segment of what a reasonable person would consider to be core infrastructure. I don't have the time or the interest to run this study. Feel free to do so.