>
>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
>>


Peter Duffy said on Thu, 20 Jan 2022 16:24:46 +0000

>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.

I doubt whether these things would have happeneed without Brian
Kernighan. For a few years, "The C Programming Language" was the C
manual and about the only way you could learn C. Years later others
wrote books better suited to learning C, but I think "The C Programming
Language" remained the manual.

>
>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).

I noticed that too. He talked about cooperative cultures, and didn't
mention Stallman, who rebelled and wrote the manifesto after his
cooperative culture broke down.

> Without GNU, it's reasonable to suppose that linux wouldn't
>have happened.

I've said that many times. The fact that (practically speaking) others
couldn't profit from selling a contributor's code, thus making the
contributor a "sucker", was a powerful incentive in the early days of
developers neither selling their code nor getting paid to write their
code. The same copyleft that seems intrusive to many of today's
developers was the perfect license for the 1990's. I still license some
of my stuff GPL2.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques