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Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

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Re: Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

#21

Post by ncmncm »

jes wrote: post #18
systemvoltage wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the pleasure of working with 60+ year old programmers. It is opposite of what you expect from the stereotypical mainstream opinions. I constantly go back to them, call them for lunch, go for walks, just so I can ask them questions about old days and how things used to work. There is so much to learn from hindsight, this knowledge is vanishing. Take advantage of learning from older people even though it doesn…

I'm a 62, almost 63, year old programmer. Thanks for being open-minded. It's been a great career for me. My first computer was a PDP-8/E and an ASR-33 teletype. I've had the good fortune to see a lot of computer history over the years. I still do embedded systems programming for work and hope to continue to do so for another five years. I've used UNIX most of my career.

Thinking back, maybe the first useful program I ever wrote was on a printing calculator that could remember a sequence of operations -- maybe up to 64? -- but had no branch instructions. You would push "go" each time it stopped, kachunk kachunk kachunk..., until it finished. The program figured loan interest payments. (Printing calculators used to be loud.)

Re: Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

#26

Post by randmeerkat »

jes wrote: post #18
systemvoltage wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the pleasure of working with 60+ year old programmers. It is opposite of what you expect from the stereotypical mainstream opinions. I constantly go back to them, call them for lunch, go for walks, just so I can ask them questions about old days and how things used to work. There is so much to learn from hindsight, this knowledge is vanishing. Take advantage of learning from older people even though it doesn…

I'm a 62, almost 63, year old programmer. Thanks for being open-minded. It's been a great career for me. My first computer was a PDP-8/E and an ASR-33 teletype. I've had the good fortune to see a lot of computer history over the years. I still do embedded systems programming for work and hope to continue to do so for another five years. I've used UNIX most of my career.

> I still do embedded systems programming for work…

What are your favorite resources for learning / reference in regards to embedded systems?

Re: Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

#27

Post by pcthrowaway »

systemvoltage wrote: post #6
enw wrote: post #2

I hate that I even feel like this, but I'm always in awe when old people (in this case 80+ years old) talk in depth about software with such fluency. I know it's self-evident, but I'm so used to being around younger folks in tech that it's really cool to see gray hairs.

I've had the pleasure of working with 60+ year old programmers. It is opposite of what you expect from the stereotypical mainstream opinions. I constantly go back to them, call them for lunch, go for walks, just so I can ask them questions about old days and how things used to work. There is so much to learn from hindsight, this knowledge is vanishing. Take advantage of learning from older people even though it doesn…

It's kind of crazy to think that computing is still young enough that we could have worked with the developers of operating systems, the world wide web, foundational protocols, and file formats. I had a CS professor 13 years ago who worked on computer chips back when personal computers were just starting to take off.

In 30-40 years, I wonder how many things from that old guard will still be around.

Re: Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

#29

Post by tempodox »

ontouchstart wrote: post #14

Mentioned in the video https://github.com/onetrueawk/awk/tree/unicode-support

Thank you for this repo link!

OT, a passage I found remarkable, at the end of bwk's mail:

  I wish I understood git better, but in spite of your
  help, I still don't have a proper understanding…
Misery loves company, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one afflicted. If Brian Kernighan has the same problem, I can't be a complete idiot.

Re: Coffee with Brian Kernighan [video]

#30

Post by ontouchstart »

tempodox wrote: post #29
ontouchstart wrote: post #14

Mentioned in the video https://github.com/onetrueawk/awk/tree/unicode-support

Thank you for this repo link! OT, a passage I found remarkable, at the end of bwk's mail: I wish I understood git better, but in spite of your help, I still don't have a proper understanding… Misery loves company, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one afflicted. If Brian Kernighan has the same problem, I can't be a complete idiot.

BWK’s commit and test files (mentioned in the video)

https://github.com/onetrueawk/awk/commit/d3a19e6f2533d479841...

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