Agreed. Lattner was the only remaining engineer of note at Apple that I knew by name.

You tried to make it sound like you were talking about Apple, but really your comment was about you.

I don't follow your logic. Of course it was about me... and which engineers that work or (worked) for Apple I admire and follow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Your comment does leave me curious why you don't consider any of the numerous other folks at Apple who have made huge contributions to swift/clang/llvm innovators worth following.

It's not that I don't consider any one else worth following; that's neither what I wrote nor meant. My apologies if that's what came across.

Surely there are tons of talented folk behind the scenes, and I am not disparaging the people that remain employed with Apple. It's simply that they are (to date) invisible to me. That's not surprising.

It's hard to break out as an influential contributor and personality when you are perhaps a quiet hero, humble team member, or hidden behind the branding of a large software corporation.

> It's hard to break out as an influential contributor and personality when you are perhaps a quiet hero, humble team member, or hidden behind the branding of a large software corporation.

While there are a ton of folks at every large corporation who fit this description, I mentioned swift/clang/llvm specifically because they are big visible open source projects with extremely active and visible contributors. As you said that you follow those projects, I'm surprised that they're invisible to you.

I'm afraid your bar for not being surprised is getting quite high ;-) I am familiar with many of the contributors of those open-source projects from IRC and their mailing lists. Not every vocal contributor is an Apple employee, i.e., Erica Sudan, nor is everyone that contributes, well, "Chris Lattner".

> Every device I own is made by Apple and has been since 2004.

I don't care for this part, fanboyism was old in the 90's.

I think you're projecting. I have bought Apple products because they work best for me in light of other options, but I don't consider them above criticism or reproach.

Calling someone a fanboy is just as old (and frankly, quite silly).

Didn't say you were a fanboy. Unfortunately, your defensiveness about being an Apple patriot is boring, which was what I was getting at.

Fanboy, patriot... not sure where the venom or reaching conclusions are coming from, but at least we can agree this has become boring :-)

So... are you down voting my comment because you don't consider it a quality comment, or do you just not like what I have to say?

I suspect people don't see it as a quality comment. Generally short or insubstantial comments receive a more positive response when the tone is positive. Negative, insubstantial comments tend to be downvoted.

(I didn't up or down vote, I'm just echoing how it reads to me)

Edit: Had your original comment included that extra backstory/justification, it surely wouldn't have been hammered with downvotes. Without it, it just reads like snark.

Lesson learned; thanks!

+1 for learning. Sometimes my witty comments get misconstrued for snark so I've just stopped leaving these types of comments here. Speaks for the mostly positive S/N ratio here. I don't want to degrade it.

I would have also liked to specifically know which other innovators you admired at Apple and what they moved on to.

Ah, sure. Below are a handful (off the top of my head) that I admire:

Sal Soghoian: automation engineering expert "relieved" of duties for whatever reasons; consulting now I believe

Tony Fadell: went on to Nest, acquired by Google; not sure what he is doing now/next

Mike Matas: Omni Group, then co-launched Delicious Monster, then co-launched Nest with Tony Fadell after leaving Apple; I believe he is a UI designer now at Facebook.

Scott Forstall: controversial pick I'm sure, but early NeXT engineer, martyr of skeuomorphism; last seen producing a broadway musical or a play I think

Steve Jobs: 'nuff said.

John Callas: While typing this I just recalled that this famed cryptographer joined Apple sometime last year. If he is still at Apple, then I was admittedly off by one in my original statement ;-)

maybe because of how negative it is. The idea that there is not 1 innovator at apple is non-sense. A lot of misses lately, but stuff like AirPods show there is still lots of talent at apple

Yeah, but that's not what I said.

And for going on about downvoting.

That particular egg came before the chicken.