Programmers' Day

Programmers' Day is an international professional holiday, recognized in many technology companies and programming firms, that is celebrated on the 256th (hexadecimal 100th, or the 28th) day of each year (September 13 during common years and on September 12 in leap years). It is also officially recognized in Russia[1][2] and observed in several other countries, including Israel, Bangladesh, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Guatemala, India, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.[citation needed]

The number 256 (28) was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte, a value well-known to programmers.[3] 256 is the highest power of two that is less than 365, the number of days in a common year.

Official recognition

This particular day was proposed by Valentin Balt, an employee of Parallel Technologies a web design company. As early as 2002, he tried to gather signatures for a petition to the government of Russia to recognize the day as the official programmers' day.[4]

On July 24, 2009, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media (Russia) issued a draft of an executive order on a new professional holiday, Programmers' Day.[5][6]

On September 11, 2009, Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev signed the decree.[2][7]

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Sources

  • Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №1034 от 11 сентября 2009 г. «О дне программиста». Вступил в силу 11 сентября 2009 г.. Опубликован: "Российская Газета", №172, 15 сентября 2009 г.. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #1034 of September 11, 2009 On Programmers' Day. Effective as of September 11, 2009.).
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Last modified on 7 April 2013, at 04:43