Diomidis Spinellis
Encyclopedia
Diomidis D. Spinellis is a Greek
computer science
academic and author of the books Code Reading
and Code Quality.
Spinellis holds an MEng
degree in Software Engineering
and a Ph.D.
in Computer Science
both from Imperial College London
. He lives in Athens
, Greece
.
He is a Professor
at the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business, and a member of the IEEE Software
editorial board, contributing the Tools of the Trade column. He is a four-time winner of the International Obfuscated C Code Contest
(1988, 1990, 1991, 1995). His Erdős number
is 4.
He is also a committer in the FreeBSD
project, and author of a number of popular free or open-source systems: the UMLGraph declarative UML diagram generator, the bib2xhtml BibTeX
to XHTML
converter, the outwit Microsoft Windows
data with command line programs integration tool suite, the CScout source code analyzer and refactoring
browser,
and the socketpipe fast IPC
plumbing utility.
In 2008, together with a collaborator, Spinellis claimed that "red links" (a Wikipedia
slang for wikilinks that lead to non-existing pages) is what drives Wikipedia growth.
On the 5th of November 2009, he was appointed the General Secretary of Information Systems at the Greek Ministry of Finance.
In October 2011 he resigned citing personal reasons.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
academic and author of the books Code Reading
Code Reading
Code Reading is a 2003 software development book written by Diomidis Spinellis.The book is directed to programmers who want to improve their code reading abilities....
and Code Quality.
Spinellis holds an MEng
Meng
Meng can refer to the following:* Master of Engineering , an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering, the symbol used for the labiodental nasal consonantal sound...
degree in Software Engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
both from Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
. He lives in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
He is a Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business, and a member of the IEEE Software
IEEE Software
IEEE Software is a broad-based practitioner-oriented magazine of IEEE Computer Society targeting software professionals, including business analysts, requirements engineers, designers, architects, developers, process improvement experts, testers, quality engineers, and project managers...
editorial board, contributing the Tools of the Trade column. He is a four-time winner of the International Obfuscated C Code Contest
International Obfuscated C Code Contest
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is a programming contest for the most creatively obfuscated C code. It was held annually between 1984 and 1996, and thereafter in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006....
(1988, 1990, 1991, 1995). His Erdős number
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
is 4.
He is also a committer in the FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
project, and author of a number of popular free or open-source systems: the UMLGraph declarative UML diagram generator, the bib2xhtml BibTeX
BibTeX
BibTeX is reference management software for formatting lists of references. The BibTeX tool is typically used together with the LaTeX document preparation system...
to XHTML
XHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
converter, the outwit Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
data with command line programs integration tool suite, the CScout source code analyzer and refactoring
Refactoring
Code refactoring is "disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior", undertaken in order to improve some of the nonfunctional attributes of the software....
browser,
and the socketpipe fast IPC
Inter-process communication
In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...
plumbing utility.
In 2008, together with a collaborator, Spinellis claimed that "red links" (a Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
slang for wikilinks that lead to non-existing pages) is what drives Wikipedia growth.
On the 5th of November 2009, he was appointed the General Secretary of Information Systems at the Greek Ministry of Finance.
In October 2011 he resigned citing personal reasons.