Talk:Brian Kernighan

Origins of UNICS
It might be nice if whoever put in that make-believe backronym could provide a citation. As having met bwk I know what the origin is. And it certainly wasn't as ambitious as stated in the article. It was a joke.

Hello World Not an Achievement
Surely you're insulting Brian (who would be but amused) by putting the trivial Hello World in as one of his achievements? The code is not significant - his tutorial style is. Hello World established that your development environment works. And of course leads to the next questions as all good tutors do.


 * Precisely. It seems some 'contributors' who have precious little to contribute are overly eager to contribute. And Brian, although a singularly brilliant pedagogic talent, cannot have been the first to suggest a student first test the development environment.


 * I'm not sure who wrote the above paragraph, but the idea behind the program is to carry out a trivial operation that familiarizes the new programmer with editing, compiling, linking, and debugging without having to worry about what the program DOES. The fact that most other programming texts imitate "hello world" proves that it was a good one, and deserves to be mentioned as an "achievement", just not a programming one.

CharlesTheBold (talk) 22:05, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It would seem the individual who wrote the above paragraph was someone with the feet more firmly on the ground. It should also be pointed out for our esteemed colleague immediately above that Brian's initial lab in no way involved debugging and that significantly Brian eschewed the use of debuggers - something our esteemed colleague seems to have missed. Yet it would be a disservice to bwk to not mention the fact that his inimitable teaching style, epitomised by C and Software Tools, often cites his famous opening program. For that, at any rate, is history and of encyclopaedic interest.

spelling mistake
wiki has spelled brian willson as brain wllson _____ the "i" is missing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.124.70.116 (talk) 09:35, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

C/Unix thinking

 * "His "Software Tools" series spread the essence of 'C/Unix thinking' with makeovers for BASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal [...]

What is the "essence of C/Unix thinking"? Thank you for explanations. --Abdull (talk) 22:22, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It is "write programs that do one thing and do it well". Other definitions can be found at "Unix philosophy" -- Marcika (talk) 13:05, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

What is the source of for "BASIC" there? -- Mcguire (talk) 17:15, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Critique of C, from 2000

 * "Software Fault Prevention by Language Choice: Why C is Not My Favorite Language", a criticism of C by Richard Fateman, Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.175.225.22 (talk) 20:57, 30 June 2010 (UTC)


 * So evidently this is a wailing wall for anyone with any grievance whatsoever. In such case I'd like to say how much I hate Britney's latest CD. Keep on topic - even here!

Kernighan's Law
Should there be a mention of Kernighan's Law?

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."

I don't know if there should be just a mention here or a whole new article, but some recognition of it should probably be added. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.92.50.150 (talk) 15:47, 25 August 2016 (UTC)


 * this quote is suitable in his wikiquote page and it's already there. check this, the 3rd quote: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan ResunS (talk) 16:01, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 7 one external links on Brian Kernighan. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150611114644/https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/btut.pdf to https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/btut.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090428163341/https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory to http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090428163341/https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory to http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090428163341/https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory to http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090428163341/https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory to http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/2009/10/leap-in-and-try-things/
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/unixhistory
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.princeton.edu/~mike/

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 15:52, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Brian-Kernighan-2017.png

Need consent about the "Programming Setup" part
Hello there! I have added the part "Programming Setup" with some details about his programming setup from an interview of him by Lex Fridman. I just want to know if is it ok and not against the rules and regulations.

Thank you. ResunS (talk) 15:52, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Early Life Section
Do we actually have a confirmed source for his place of birth? Link referenced is behind a paywall but I suspect even if it does say "Toronto" that is more an inaccuracy by the author (vs "Toronto area"). This came up as he was recently inducted into the Milton Walk of Fame (Milton is a tiny town, pop would be less than 10k at BK dob, so I can totally see a national paper simply referring to it as Toronto). Milton Historical Society lists him as a Milton not Toronto resident. Kav2001c (talk) 01:17, 15 February 2023 (UTC)kav2001c

Order of Canada?
Why no Order of Canada for Prof. Kernighan when every pop singer gets one? 142.205.202.71 (talk) 18:10, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Birthday Brian Kernighan?
30 january in other language wiki say 1 january. 2803:7D80:A40B:79F6:4952:4353:2CB3:E5EA (talk) 23:16, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

Main body of article lacks any info on Kernighan's work for Bell Labs
Since his work for Bell Labs and with Unix development there is one of the most notable things about him, more so then his professorship at Princeton, then that should be mentioned in the body of the article under "Career and research", not just in the lead. Info such as when he joined Bell labs, how long he worked there for, and so forth would be valuable in the main body of the article. -- Notcharliechaplin (talk) 04:07, 13 July 2024 (UTC)