Brian Kernighan is my favorite technical writer (alongside Doug McIlroy, but the latter didn't write any books, Research Unix manual pages are an art form in themselves). Basic books teach you the how, good books teach you the why, but the great books -- and Brian wrote some truly great ones -- teach you wisdom.
I read "Unix: A History and a Memoir", and it's a great book if you are into computer history, but it left me very sad. I don't know why, is it because Unix (in its philosophy) is dead? Is it because the people who help create and shape Unix are old and dying? I don't know. It's a great book but it left a void in my heart.
Read it too, and I had a similar feeling. To me it was the thought that we will probably never see a place like Bell labs -a temple to knowledge, to gather great minds and let them work on whatever they think might have interesting outcomes, no matter how long it takes to obtain results and without having to worry about short-term financial issues.
Now researchers -in my country anyways- are forced into mostly researching ways to obtain funding and doing a little bit of actual research, almost as a side gig.
Google had (has?) a similar platform, but it had nowhere near the same success as Bell Labs did. They did launch some products but a lot of them failed.
It's definitely a bit of a melancholy read. Some of the people who invented Unix are long gone, and we probably don't have a lot of time left with the people who are still with us. I'm glad Brian was able to tell the full story while there's still time left. We take Unix for granted, but its the basis of most of the modern operating system world.
Unix was the first accessible real computer system like we know it. I worked with AT&T and Bell Atlantic for a project, and they provided several 3B2 systems for the project and for us to work on them in ~1992. They were used internally for all sorts of business applications, and the interface was typically a green screen like a Televideo 9xx. The only other systems I found that accessible and easy to use were Sun-like CAD workstation knockoffs that ran BSD 4.3 Unix in ~1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3B_series_computers#3B2
I wanted to read "Unix: A History and a Memoir" but I couldn't find how to buy a DRM-free copy. It looks really good and I am glad to read that someone liked it.
I’m one of the creators of the podcast. Thanks for linking to the site!
If you’re not familiar with the podcast, we read and discuss a new software engineering book each week. When we can, we interview the authors, like we just did with Brian.
Yeah I mean either that or do the bare minimum of audio production if you're interviewing someone.
If you have to interview them over a video call, at least have them record their own audio channel locally on a decent mic and don't just upload the recorded zoom call like it's 2020.
Don't worry about any grumblings, you guys do a great job.
One question/request for you though - could you figure out some sort of Q&A or "Discussion Points" aspect to add to the upcoming schedule? Maybe a public Google doc to allow people to weigh in or add notes to. It'd be nice to increase the audience participation aspect.
I think it’s fair to comment on the audio. Great interview but I found it really difficult to follow along due to the sound quality. To the host with the big Shure mic in the middle of their shot: point it at your mouth!
That's something we've been considering! Right now I'm wrapping up my masters degree and will finish in April (fingers crossed). Once I have more free time, we're going to look at other ways to expand the podcast, including audience participation. We've gotten that request from a few people.
Brian Kernighan is my favorite technical writer (alongside Doug McIlroy, but the latter didn't write any books, Research Unix manual pages are an art form in themselves). Basic books teach you the how, good books teach you the why, but the great books -- and Brian wrote some truly great ones -- teach you wisdom.
I read "Unix: A History and a Memoir", and it's a great book if you are into computer history, but it left me very sad. I don't know why, is it because Unix (in its philosophy) is dead? Is it because the people who help create and shape Unix are old and dying? I don't know. It's a great book but it left a void in my heart.
Read it too, and I had a similar feeling. To me it was the thought that we will probably never see a place like Bell labs -a temple to knowledge, to gather great minds and let them work on whatever they think might have interesting outcomes, no matter how long it takes to obtain results and without having to worry about short-term financial issues. Now researchers -in my country anyways- are forced into mostly researching ways to obtain funding and doing a little bit of actual research, almost as a side gig.
As far as I know, the Unix group has to promise to build a document processing system to get the pdp-11 they needed.
Building Unix was a specific non-goal of Bell Labs as a result of their experience with Multics.
It was the perseverance of the Unix group that made them get the resources they needed.
Google had (has?) a similar platform, but it had nowhere near the same success as Bell Labs did. They did launch some products but a lot of them failed.
Is that Google X or some other unit?
It's definitely a bit of a melancholy read. Some of the people who invented Unix are long gone, and we probably don't have a lot of time left with the people who are still with us. I'm glad Brian was able to tell the full story while there's still time left. We take Unix for granted, but its the basis of most of the modern operating system world.
Unix was the first accessible real computer system like we know it. I worked with AT&T and Bell Atlantic for a project, and they provided several 3B2 systems for the project and for us to work on them in ~1992. They were used internally for all sorts of business applications, and the interface was typically a green screen like a Televideo 9xx. The only other systems I found that accessible and easy to use were Sun-like CAD workstation knockoffs that ran BSD 4.3 Unix in ~1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3B_series_computers#3B2
I wanted to read "Unix: A History and a Memoir" but I couldn't find how to buy a DRM-free copy. It looks really good and I am glad to read that someone liked it.
You can buy a hardcopy on Amazon.
link to the creators website: https://bookoverflow.io/
It has a list of previous books and talks. I was happy to see you could follow along with upcoming talks. Page numbers are included.
I’m one of the creators of the podcast. Thanks for linking to the site!
If you’re not familiar with the podcast, we read and discuss a new software engineering book each week. When we can, we interview the authors, like we just did with Brian.
small point, but I was not previously aware he pronounces it KerniHan (I was aware that in Ireland it would be)
The pronunciation is shown here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan
Also note BK's preference for his Desert-Island Programming Language:
"He has said that if stranded on an island with only one programming language it would have to be C."
I trust that the air-gap would keep him safe. ^_^
>if stranded on an island with only one programming language it would have to be C
evil plotting raccoon meme: strand Kernighan on an island with just a LISP machine
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/727/Scr...
He then writes a C compiler in Lisp. Checkmate.
Kernighan would probably first write the simplest possible C interpreter in Lisp, so he could then write the C compiler in C and get it bootstrapped.
Mainly how the air gap would keep him safe would be by preventing updates of ISO C and GCC.
I'm sure I read years ago that he pronounces it with a hard G. Does he pronounce it that way in the video or just the presenters?
I once had Brian as an "intern" on my team. It is definitely -not- a hard G.
Mind sharing the context of how you had him as an "intern"?!
I'm going to guess that this was at Google, sometimes they structured visiting faculty as interns (Geoff Hinton was Jeff Dean's intern).
Really crusty/choppy audio on this video unfortunately.
Improving audio with AI would be a good thing for @Google/@YouTube to put time/effort in! :-)
Yeah I mean either that or do the bare minimum of audio production if you're interviewing someone.
If you have to interview them over a video call, at least have them record their own audio channel locally on a decent mic and don't just upload the recorded zoom call like it's 2020.
I'm one of the creators of the podcast. We do what we can, but this is very much a side project for us. We're both full-time SDEs with day jobs.
Don't worry about any grumblings, you guys do a great job.
One question/request for you though - could you figure out some sort of Q&A or "Discussion Points" aspect to add to the upcoming schedule? Maybe a public Google doc to allow people to weigh in or add notes to. It'd be nice to increase the audience participation aspect.
I think it’s fair to comment on the audio. Great interview but I found it really difficult to follow along due to the sound quality. To the host with the big Shure mic in the middle of their shot: point it at your mouth!
That's something we've been considering! Right now I'm wrapping up my masters degree and will finish in April (fingers crossed). Once I have more free time, we're going to look at other ways to expand the podcast, including audience participation. We've gotten that request from a few people.
> like it's 2020
Are you telling me it's not still 2020?
It will always be 2020.
The new Eternal September.
Happy 59th month of 2020