Brian Kernighan
Brian Kernighan¹ (born 1942) is a computer scientist who worked at the Bell Labs and contributed to the design of the pioneering AWK and AMPL programming languages.
Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the 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.
The "K" of K&R C and the "K" in the name AWK derive from "Kernighan."
He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and received his Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Toronto. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University, where as of 2004 he holds a professorship in the department of computer science.
(¹ 'Kernighan' is pronounced Ker'-ni-han; the 'g' is silent)
Writings by Kernighan
- The Unix Programming Environment (1984 with Rob Pike)
- The C Programming Language (1978 with Dennis Ritchie, see K&R)
- The AWK Programming Language (1988 with Peter J. Weinberger)
- The Practice of Programming (1999 with Rob Pike)
External links
- Brian Kernighan's home page at Princeton U.
- "Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language" – By Brian Kernighan, AT&T Bell Labs, 2 April 1981
- An Interview with Brian Kernighan – By Mihai Budiu, for PC Report Romania, August 2000
- Interview with Brian Kernighan – By Aleksey Dolya, for Linux Jounal, July 2003.
Categories: Canadian computer scientists | Computer pioneers | Programmers | Technology writers | Canadian academics | 1942 births | Unix people