Brian Kernighan: Difference between revisions
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'''Brian Wilson Kernighan''' ({{pronEng|ˈkɛrn<s>ɪ</s>hæn}}, the 'g' is silent), (born [[1942]], [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]]) is a [[computer scientist]] who worked at [[Bell Labs]] alongside [[Unix]] creators [[Ken Thompson (programmer)|Ken Thompson]] and [[Dennis Ritchie]] and contributed greatly to Unix and its school of thought. He is also coauthor of the [[AWK (programming language)|AWK]] and [[AMPL programming language|AMPL]] [[programming language]]s. The 'K' of [[The C Programming Language (book)|K&R C]] and the 'K' in [[AWK (programming language)|AWK]] stand for 'Kernighan'. |
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Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]] with [[Dennis Ritchie]]. Kernighan has said that he had no part in the design of the C language ("it's entirely Dennis Ritchie's work"). He authored many [[Unix]] programs, including [[ditroff]]. |
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In collaboration with [[Shen Lin]] he devised well-known heuristics for two [[NP-complete]] optimization problems: [[graph partitioning]] and the [[travelling salesman problem]]. (In a display of authorial equity, the former is usually called the ''[[Kernighan-Lin]]'' algorithm, while the latter is styled ''[[Lin-Kernighan]]''.) |
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Kernighan was also software editor for Prentice-Hall International. His "Software Tools" series spread the essence of 'C/Unix thinking' with makeovers for BASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal - and most notably his 'Ratfor' (rational FORTRAN) was put in the public domain. |
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He has said that if stranded on an island with only one programming language it would have to be [[C (programming language)|C]]. {{Fact|date=February 2008}} |
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==Education== |
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He received his [[Bachelor's degree]] in [[Engineering Physics]] from the [[University of Toronto]]. He received his PhD in [[electrical engineering]] from [[Princeton University]], where he has held a professorship in the department of computer science since 2000. Each fall he teaches a course called "Computers in Our World", which introduces the fundamentals of computing to non-majors. |
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He has on occasion revealed it was his own pun which led to the use of the name 'Unix' (initially 'Unics') for the operating system [[Ken Thompson]] and [[Dennis Ritchie]] were working on. |
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==Summary of Achievements== |
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*''[[Hello, world]]'', a program originally written by Brian Kernighan of [[Bell Labs]] in "A Tutorial Introduction to the Language B" [[http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/btut.html]]. |
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*The [[AWK (programming language)|AWK]] programming language, along with [[Al Aho]] and [[Peter J. Weinberger]], and its book ''[[The AWK Programming Language (book)|The AWK Programming Language]]'' |
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*The [[AMPL]] programming language |
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*[[Ratfor]], along with [[P. J. Plauger]] |
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*''[[Software Tools]]'', a book and set of tools for [[Ratfor]], cocreated in part with [[P. J. Plauger]] |
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*''[[Software Tools in Pascal]]'', a book and set of tools for [[PASCAL (Programming language)|PASCAL]], with P. J. Plauger |
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*''[[The Unix Programming Environment]]'', a tutorial book along with [[Rob Pike]] |
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*''[[The C Programming Language (book)|The C Programming Language]]'' along with C creator [[Dennis Ritchie]], the first ever book on C |
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*The [[pic_language|pic]] typesetting language for [[troff]] |
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*The [[eqn]] typesetting language for [[troff]], along with [[Lorinda Cherry]] |
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*''[[The Practice of Programming]]'', with [[Rob Pike]] |
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*''Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language'', a popular criticism of the [[Pascal programming language]] by [[Niklaus Wirth]]. Some parts of the criticism are obsolete due to ISO 7185 (Programming Languages - Pascal), the criticism was written before ISO 7185 was even created. See below for a link. (AT&T Computing Science Technical Report #100) |
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*[[ditroff]], or "device independent [[troff]]", which allowed troff to be used with any device |
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*The [[m4 (computer language)|m4]] macro processing language, with [[Dennis Ritchie]] |
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==Writings == |
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*''[[Software Tools]]'' ([[1976]] with [[P. J. Plauger]]) |
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*''[[Software Tools in Pascal]]'' ([[1981]] with [[P. J. Plauger]]) |
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*''[[The C Programming Language (book)|The C Programming Language]]'' ("K&R") ([[1978, 1988]] with [[Dennis Ritchie]]) |
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*''[[The Elements of Programming Style (book)|The Elements of Programming Style]]'' ([[1974, 1978]] with [[P. J. Plauger]]) |
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*''[[The Unix Programming Environment]]'' ([[1984]] with [[Rob Pike]]) |
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*''[[The AWK Programming Language]]'' ([[1988]] with [[Al Aho]] and [[Peter J. Weinberger]]) |
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*''[[The Practice of Programming]]'' ([[1999]] with [[Rob Pike]]) |
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*''AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming, 2nd Ed. ([[2003]] with [[Robert Fourer]] and [[David Gay]]) |
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== External links == |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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*[http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/ Brian Kernighan's home page at Princeton U.] |
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*[http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/ Brian Kernighan's home page at Bell Labs] |
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*[http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html "Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language"] – By Brian Kernighan, AT&T Bell Labs, [[2 April]] [[1981]] |
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*[http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mihaib/kernighan-interview/index.html An Interview with Brian Kernighan] – By Mihai Budiu, for ''PC Report Romania'', August 2000 |
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*[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7035 Interview with Brian Kernighan] – By Aleksey Dolya, for ''Linux Journal'', July 2003. |
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* [http://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory Transcript of an interview with Brian Kernighan] – Interview by [http://www.princeton.edu/~mike/ Michael S. Mahoney] |
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* [http://technetcast.ddj.com/tnc_play_stream.html?stream_id=25 Video] - TechNetCast At Bell Labs: Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan (1999-05-14) |
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*[http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/special/ Video (Princeton University, September 7, 2003)] - "Assembly for the Class of 2007: 'D is for Digital and Why It Matters'" |
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* [http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/descent.html A Descent into Limbo] by Brian Kernighan |
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* [http://www.adeptis.ru/vinci/m_part6.html Photos of Brian Kernighan] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kernighan, Brian}} |
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[[Category:1942 births]] |
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[[Category:Living people]] |
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[[Category:Canadian computer scientists]] |
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[[Category:Computer pioneers]] |
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[[Category:Computer programmers]] |
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[[Category:Inferno people]] |
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[[Category:Irish Canadians]] |
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[[Category:People from Toronto]] |
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[[Category:Plan 9 people]] |
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[[Category:Princeton University alumni]] |
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[[Category:Princeton University faculty]] |
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[[Category:Programming language designers]] |
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[[Category:Scientists at Bell Labs]] |
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[[Category:Technology writers]] |
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[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]] |
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[[Category:Unix people]] |
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[[Category:C programming language]] |
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[[cs:Brian Kernighan]] |
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[[de:Brian W. Kernighan]] |
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[[es:Brian Kernighan]] |
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[[eo:Brian Kernighan]] |
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[[fr:Brian Kernighan]] |
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[[ko:브라이언 커니핸]] |
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[[mr:ब्रायन केर्निघन]] |
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[[ja:ブライアン・カーニハン]] |
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[[pl:Brian Kernighan]] |
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[[ru:Кёрниган, Брайан]] |
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Revision as of 16:19, 28 April 2008
sweet as motherfucker.