Day of the Programmer
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Day of the Programmer
OR:
Day of the Programmer on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Programmer's Day, also known as the Day of the Programmer, is a professional day that is celebrated in
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
on the 256th ( hexadecimal 100th, or the 28th) day of each year (September 13 during common years and on September 12 in
leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or ...
s). The number
256 Year 256 ( CCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Claudius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 1009 ''Ab urbe condi ...
(28) was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with a
byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...
, a value well known to programmers. 256 is also 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 and Michael Cherviakov (aka htonus), employees of Parallel Technologies (a software company). As early as 2002, they tried to gather signatures for a petition to the government of Russia to recognize the day as the official Day of the Programmer. On July 24, 2009, the
Ministry of Communications and Mass Media (Russia) The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (russian: Министерство цифрового развития, связи и массовых коммуникаций Российской Фед ...
issued a draft of an executive order on a new professional holiday, Day of the Programmer. On September 11, 2009,
President of Russia The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Dmitry Medvedev signed the decree.


Criticism

Due to
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, members of the Ukrainian IT community have proposed to boycott this holiday.


Chinese Programmer's Day

In China, the programmer's day is October 24, which has been established for many years. The date was chosen because it can also be written as 1024, which is equal to 210 and corresponds to the Ki
binary prefix A binary prefix is a unit prefix for multiples of units. It is most often used in data processing, data transmission, and digital information, principally in association with the bit and the byte, to indicate multiplication by a power of& ...
. It is also a consistent date regardless of leap years.


See also

* World Information Society Day * System Administrator Appreciation Day *
Secretary's Day Administrative Professionals Day (also known as Secretaries Day or Admin Day) is a day observed yearly in a small number of countries. It is not a public holiday in any of them. In some countries, it falls within Administrative Professionals Week ...


References


Sources

*{{Cite Russian law , ru_entity=Президент Российской Федерации , ru_type=Указ , ru_number=1034 , ru_date=11 сентября 2009 г. , ru_title=О дне программиста , ru_effective_date=11 сентября 2009 г. , ru_published_in="Российская Газета", №172 , ru_published_date=15 сентября 2009 г. , ru_url=http://www.consultant.ru/online/base/?req=doc;base=LAW;n=91490 , en_entity=
President of the Russian Federation The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
, en_type=Decree , en_number=1034 , en_date=September 11, 2009 , en_title=On the Day of the Programmer , en_effective_date=September 11, 2009 , en_url=https://www.elektrolab.eu/blog/dnes-je-svetovy-den-programatorov Observances in Russia September observances Autumn events in Russia Computing culture