The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan • Hacker News Board

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#21

Post by pjmlp » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 4:27 PM UTC

gorbypark wrote: post #6

monkeypilot wrote: post #5

For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix

I'd also recommend his book, it was an excellent read. Do you know of any more books that are similar? Historical and a little bit "technical"?

"Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, The, 2nd Edition"

https://www.informit.com/store/design-and-implementation-of-...

Marshall Kirk McKusick has done some talks on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEEr6dT-4uQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbMBdGPoHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQe-nnJPNF8

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#22

Post by tomcat27 » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

I read the K&R's C Programming book when I was in undergrad.

It's different from other programming books I read from APress, O'Reilly publications.

Hard to digest but never before read a book so short and crisp that fully explains the programming language.

To any noob programmer out there, I'd say pick K&R's book, spend a semester on it, do the exercises. You will become better engineer. You'll not regret.

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#23

Post by agbell » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 5:02 PM UTC

bronson wrote: post #19

agbell wrote: post #15

Thanks for submitting this. I did the interview. I think you have to listen to it to get the full experience. But here are some things that were interesting and surprising from the interview: The UNIX room - The unix room at bell labs was a shared room where they would hang out and have coffee. Some people worked exclusively in the UNIX room, like Ken Thompson, but most worked in their private offices and came to the…

I love Brian Kernighan interviews so I was eager to listen. I have mixed feelings. You would often make a point and then play snippets from him supporting it. You often gave yourself center stage and used him as evidence. I found it overedited and synthetic, more a performance than an interview. I came for BWK and left unsatisfied. If that's the style you were going for, that's fine. Maybe it's just my expectations.…

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't like the format. Thanks for giving it a listen anyhow.

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#24

Post by leoc » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

0:16:40 For those who haven't seen it before, there's a Computerphile video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVxeuwlvf8w (related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvwNKpDUkiE) about the hacking of the typesetting machine, a Mergenthaler Linotron 202.

0:24:31 The photo must be the one at https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/picture.html (probably the webpage, on Dennis Ritchie's old website, that made it famous recently).

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#25

Post by alexdowad » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 7:02 PM UTC

Adam, you said at the end of the interview that you are looking for ways to grow your listener base. Well... I guess you got exactly what you were looking for, between interviewing Brian Kernighan and being featured on Hacker News...

That's probably a good formula to go by: get interviews with "big names" who have done incredible things in the field, make the content as good as you can, and submit to HN.

Personally I would love to hear an interview with Fabrice Bellard, if you can get him. That man is a true "superstar" of programming. Interview Fabrice and you have my subscribe, 100%.

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#26

Post by chubot » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

gorbypark wrote: post #6

monkeypilot wrote: post #5

For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix

I'd also recommend his book, it was an excellent read. Do you know of any more books that are similar? Historical and a little bit "technical"?

The Idea Factory by Gertner was great, and in fact Kernighan's memoir specifically recommended it for more detail on Bell Labs!

https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovatio...

Search for the many HN comments about this 2013 book:

https://www.google.com/search?q=idea+factory+site%3Anews.yco...

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#27

Post by leoc » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 7:31 PM UTC

gorbypark wrote: post #6

monkeypilot wrote: post #5

For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix

I'd also recommend his book, it was an excellent read. Do you know of any more books that are similar? Historical and a little bit "technical"?

Steven Levy's Hackers of course, but also his Crypto which is in some ways even better.

Michael A. Hiltzik's Dealers of Lightning about the heyday of computing research at Xerox PARC isn't universally praised (IIRC it's more or less Bob Metcalfe's version of the story) but it is very readable.

Bob Johnstone's We Were Burning, about the golden age of Japanese consumer electronics (wich also covers many events and actors in the US and UK).

David Kushner's Masters of Doom, about the heyday of Id Software.

The First Computers—History and Architectures is a more academic book, a selection of history papers, but it's still very readable. The Computer Pioneers: Pioneer Computers videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik&list=PL14396C953... , presented by Gordon Moore himself, cover much of the same ground (it says little about the wartime Bletchley Park computers).

If I'm going to allow myself some videos then I should also mention Steve Blank "Secret History of Silicon Valley" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo and David Alan Grier's "When Computers Were Human" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqltwvPnkw .

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#28

Post by IvyMike » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

heavyavocado wrote: post #18

monkeypilot wrote: post #5

For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix

Heard great things about it and really want to read it. However, a warning to anyone thinking of getting this book on kindle: It's unreadable. It literally will not download on a kindle device. Just purchased it recently but will have to refund.

You are correct--it is pretty disappointing they haven't made it available on normal kindle devices.

That being said, I think you will be able to read it on the kindle player on a desktop computer. At least, that worked for me. I admit this is not ideal, but the book is fantastic and it was worth the extra effort.

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#29

Post by agbell » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

alexdowad wrote: post #25

Adam, you said at the end of the interview that you are looking for ways to grow your listener base. Well... I guess you got exactly what you were looking for, between interviewing Brian Kernighan and being featured on Hacker News... That's probably a good formula to go by: get interviews with "big names" who have done incredible things in the field, make the content as good as you can, and submit to HN. Personally I…

Oh, I would love to interview him as well! Great idea, if anyone has a connection to him let me know.

I spend way too much time lurking on hacker news so having this show up here is both exciting and frightening for me ... be careful what you wish for.

Re: The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan

#30

Post by tahoemph999 » Sun, Nov 22, 2020, 8:01 PM UTC

tomcat27 wrote: post #22

I read the K&R's C Programming book when I was in undergrad. It's different from other programming books I read from APress, O'Reilly publications. Hard to digest but never before read a book so short and crisp that fully explains the programming language. To any noob programmer out there, I'd say pick K&R's book, spend a semester on it, do the exercises. You will become better engineer. You'll not regret.

I came at this the other way. KnR was my first real book about programming. Next were Bentley. Most O'Reilly and like books are overly wordy and don't get to the meat of the issue for me.

I don't think KnR will make you a much better engineer. But it will give you a really strong boost into being a reasonable c programmer. And it does that well because it focuses on that.