Thanks for the link to that - brilliant talk. I've always thought that
Brian Kernighan himself was the great communicator in the UNIX group - I
wonder whether "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming
Environment" would have happened without his obvious ability to take
abstruse and difficult material and make it accessible.

If I had one incredibly tiny nit to pick, it would be that he didn't
mention GNU (it appeared once in the slide showing Linus' original
email). Without GNU, it's reasonable to suppose that linux wouldn't have
happened.


On Sun, 2022-01-16 at 04:12 -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This was discussed on the devuan-offtopic IRC channel, so I watched the
> video:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCr_KFl41E
>
> It's Brian Kernighan discussing the formation of Unix, starting from
> the back story of the creation of Bell Labs, including predecessors
> CTSS and Multics, and C predecessors BCPL which was modified to become
> B, and why Dennis Richie added types to B to make C.
>
> This video really hits its stride when Kernighan discusses piping and
> redirection, and the ease of creating wonderful things out of small
> parts that, and Kernighan used these words, "do one thing and do it
> well."
>
> I felt like I was watching a fellow traveller who respected simplicity,
> and creating powerful systems from simple tools. It was a much needed
> reaffirmation for a guy who, when he's not with his Devuan buddies,
> endures countless taunts for not using the pulseaudio-mandated Zoom, or
> a Mac, or even Windows. They call me a tinkerer, even though my user
> interface has changed not one bit in seven years (Openbox with dmenu
> and UMENU2). Kind of ironic considering the changes their beloved Gnome
> and KDE have put them through during that time.
>
> This video is such a breath of fresh air in a world worshipping Gates,
> Jobs and Poettering. I suggest you watch it. I think it will bring a
> smile to your face.
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
> Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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