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Dave Thomas

b. 1956

British computer programmer

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About Dave Thomas

Born 1956. Dave Thomas is a British engineer, computer scientist, entrepreneur and consultant.

Dave Thomas (born 1960) is a computer programmer, author and editor. He has written about Ruby and together with Andy Hunt, he co-authored The Pragmatic Programmer and runs The Pragmatic Bookshelf publishing company. Thomas moved to the United States from England in 1994 and lives north of Dallas, Texas.

Thomas coined the phrases 'Code Kata' and 'DRY' (Don't Repeat Yourself), and was an original signatory and author of The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. He studied computer science at Imperial College London.

Awards and honors In 2006, Thomas became an ACM Distinguished Member.

Works The Pragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, 1999, Addison Wesley. Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, David Thomas and Andrew Hunt, 2000, Addison Wesley, Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS, David Thomas and Andrew Hunt, 2003, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java with JUnit, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, 2003, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with Nunit, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, 2004, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Programming Ruby (2nd Edition), Dave Thomas, Chad Fowler, and Andrew Hunt, 2004, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with Nunit, 2nd Edition, Andy Hunt and David Thomas with Matt Hargett, 2007, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Agile Web Development with Rails, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson, Andreas Schwarz, Thomas Fuchs, Leon Breedt, and Mike Clark, 2005, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Agile Web Development with Rails (2nd edition), Dave Thomas, with David Heinemener Hansson, Mike Clark, Justin Gehtland, James Duncan Davidson, 2006, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Programming Elixir: Functional |> Concurrent |> Pragmatic |> Fun, Dave Thomas, foreword by José Valim the creator of Elixir, and edited by Lynn Beighley, 2014, Pragmatic Bookshelf,

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Also known as
pragdave

People in Dave Thomas's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Dave Thomas's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Dave Thomas?

British computer programmer

When was Dave Thomas born?

Dave Thomas was born on 12 August 1956.

What is Dave Thomas's occupation?

Dave Thomas is an engineer, computer scientist, entrepreneur and consultant.

What nationality is Dave Thomas?

Dave Thomas is British.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Dave Thomas

· Wikidata: Q377261

· DBpedia: Dave Thomas (programmer)

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Dave Thomas. https://biography.guide/dave-thomas-engineer/

MLA: "Dave Thomas." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/dave-thomas-engineer/.

Chicago: "Dave Thomas." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/dave-thomas-engineer/.

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