4 ms·

Anyone know if Kernighan has written a lot of Go code himself, or is he onboard more for his technical writing skills? (There's the Bell Labs connection of cou

by frou_dh 12y ago

Anyone know if Kernighan has written a lot of Go code himself, or is he onboard more for his technical writing skills? (There's the Bell Labs connection of course)

NateDad 12y ago
He and Rob Pike have written a few books together, that's likely the main connection. I follow the Go community fairly closely and hadn't heard of Kernighan in connection with Go, but he may also not be advertising his use of it.
- f2f 12y ago
  kernighan also wrote the tutorial on the Limbo programming language: http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/descent http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/desc... he's obviously good at it, and the perspective of someone not involved with the creation of the language is a bonus.
- mseepgood 12y ago
  He authored the first 4 commits in the Go repository ;) https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7d7c6a97f815e9279d08cfaea7d5efb5e90695a8 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7d7c6a97f815e9279d08cfae... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0bb0b61d6a85b2a1a33dcbc418089656f2754d32 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0bb0b61d6a85b2a1a33dcbc4... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0744ac969119db8a0ad3253951d375eb77cfce9e https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0744ac969119db8a0ad32539... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/d82b11e4a46307f1f1415024f33263e819c222b8 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/d82b11e4a46307f1f1415024...
zaphar 12y ago
Kernighan is one of the core authors of the language. So I'd say it's for more than just his technical writing skills.
- osw 12y ago
  The main authors are Ken Thompson, Rob Pike and Robert Griesemer, Kernighan knows Ken since the 70s and Rob knows both of them since the 80s.
- frou_dh 12y ago
  No he isn't. Thompson gets slighted the same way by everyone thinking K&R _created_ C, when that was T&R. They may all be greybeards but they are in fact distinct people!
- mseepgood 12y ago
  You're mixing up the Bell Labs / Unix greybeards. - Ken Thompson: Bell Labs, B, Unix, Plan 9, Go - Dennis Ritchie: Bell Labs, C, Unix - Rob Pike: Bell Labs, Unix contributor, Plan 9, Limbo, Go - Brian W. Kernighan: Bell Labs, Unix contributor, AWK, AMPL Books: - "The C Programming Language" - Kernighan & Richie - "The AWK Programming Language" - Kernighan & Aho - "The Elements of Programming Style" - Kernighan & Plauger - "The Unix Programming Environment" - Kernighan & Pike - "The Practice of Programming" - Kernighan & Pike - "The Go Programming Language" - Kernighan & Donovan
beisner 12y ago
I spoke to Kernighan about it a few days ago, and he seemed to be doing a good amount of go development.

by frou_dh 12y ago

Anyone know if Kernighan has written a lot of Go code himself, or is he onboard more for his technical writing skills? (There's the Bell Labs connection of course)

NateDad 12y ago

He and Rob Pike have written a few books together, that's likely the main connection. I follow the Go community fairly closely and hadn't heard of Kernighan in connection with Go, but he may also not be advertising his use of it.

f2f 12y ago
kernighan also wrote the tutorial on the Limbo programming language: http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/descent http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/desc... he's obviously good at it, and the perspective of someone not involved with the creation of the language is a bonus.
mseepgood 12y ago
He authored the first 4 commits in the Go repository ;) https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7d7c6a97f815e9279d08cfaea7d5efb5e90695a8 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/7d7c6a97f815e9279d08cfae... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0bb0b61d6a85b2a1a33dcbc418089656f2754d32 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0bb0b61d6a85b2a1a33dcbc4... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0744ac969119db8a0ad3253951d375eb77cfce9e https://github.com/golang/go/commit/0744ac969119db8a0ad32539... https://github.com/golang/go/commit/d82b11e4a46307f1f1415024f33263e819c222b8 https://github.com/golang/go/commit/d82b11e4a46307f1f1415024...

zaphar 12y ago

Kernighan is one of the core authors of the language. So I'd say it's for more than just his technical writing skills.

osw 12y ago
The main authors are Ken Thompson, Rob Pike and Robert Griesemer, Kernighan knows Ken since the 70s and Rob knows both of them since the 80s.
frou_dh 12y ago
No he isn't. Thompson gets slighted the same way by everyone thinking K&R _created_ C, when that was T&R. They may all be greybeards but they are in fact distinct people!
mseepgood 12y ago
You're mixing up the Bell Labs / Unix greybeards. - Ken Thompson: Bell Labs, B, Unix, Plan 9, Go - Dennis Ritchie: Bell Labs, C, Unix - Rob Pike: Bell Labs, Unix contributor, Plan 9, Limbo, Go - Brian W. Kernighan: Bell Labs, Unix contributor, AWK, AMPL Books: - "The C Programming Language" - Kernighan & Richie - "The AWK Programming Language" - Kernighan & Aho - "The Elements of Programming Style" - Kernighan & Plauger - "The Unix Programming Environment" - Kernighan & Pike - "The Practice of Programming" - Kernighan & Pike - "The Go Programming Language" - Kernighan & Donovan

beisner 12y ago

I spoke to Kernighan about it a few days ago, and he seemed to be doing a good amount of go development.