Slashdot Mirror
Linux Journal Interview With Brian Kernighan
pndiku writes "Linux Journal has an interesting interview with Brian Kernighan where he talks about AWK, AMPL and how he had nothing to do with the creation of C."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
The story has a link to ampl.org, the correct link is ampl.com.
John.
So, we still have K&R, just as before. Only now, maybe some readers understand better that K&R is not the names of the C inventors, but the name of the people who wrote the book about how to use C ;)
The book you are referring to:
The Practice of Programming
Kerningham and Pike
Addison-Wesley, 1999
is a classic text and it's very clearly written. The front cover sums up in three words the core philosophy of the entire book:
Simplicity
Clarity
Generality
It is a delight to read although it uses C/C++ as the example language everywhere and tends, therefore, to be a little C oriented, although there are examples in other languages.
Much of the material will be familiar to people who've done a CS degree (e.g. trees, O-notation, etc.) but the section on testing is very worthwhile if you are planning to write code that will last a long time.
John.
Let's see ...
If you had done as much important work, I think you would be worthy of an interview, too. That's no guarantee that you'd have much to say, of course.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Here's an HTML version of Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language. There's a Postscript version on Kernighan's website
Isn't it odd that I'd recommend to people who want to become programmers to avoid taking Brian Kerningham's class?
... like what you see on Slashdot every day). It's not just a programming course -- it covers pretty much every aspect of the field of computing and its related subjects, though in somewhat limited depth.
I know people who have taken his classes. I live with one of them (a CS type), and used to live with another (a non-CS type). All of them have nothing but good things to say about Kernighan's classes.
The class in which he teaches VB is oriented towards non-CS types, and, from what I saw of my former roommate's coursework, I can't imagine a better course to give people who are basically computer illiterate SOME idea of just what goes on inside the magic box, and some familiarity with all the issues surrounding information technology (legal, ethical, etc.
Complaining about VB's namespace problems in this context is like bitching about giving a toddler a tricycle because he'll never win the Tour de France on anything with three wheels. My former roommate had no problems with his programming assignments that he wouldn't have had in any other language, and, judging from what I've seen of people trying to pick up C and Java for the first time, VB is a far better choice of language for a course that aims to give people a flavor of what computers are all about.