UNIX - a history and a memoir book

[Sparrowhawk]

During my conversation with XorA regarding the new qem-unzip tool, I mentioned that I'd read (long ago) the K&R book on the C programming language. This reminded me that I am currently reading an absolutely fascinating book on the origins of UNIX at Bell Labs in the 1960's and 70s, by Brian Kernighan himself. An absolute treasure trove, full of wonderful facts and some nice touches of humour. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of computing generally, and UNIX and its derivatives (Linux, macOS, etc) in particular.

My lovely wife got this for me for Christmas (admittedly after a huge dollop of hinting, as in "I'd like this book please" )

[NormanDunbar]

Reading it here too!

By the way, in the ANSI (aka Second) edition of the K&R C Programming Language, have a look at the entry for "Recursion" in the index on page 269.

For those who don't have the book, it says, on page 269:

Recursion 86,139,141,182,202,269

Cheers,
Norm.

[Sparrowhawk]

Geek humour. Always the best.

[dilwyn]

Geek humour. Always the best.

A lot of us are, err, re-cursing after that attempt at humour...

[NormanDunbar]

It is, of course, more subtle than:

Recursion: See Recursion

[swensont]

Sparrowhawk thanks for the recommendation. I ordered the book a month ago and took me just a few nights to complete it. Really a good book. Interesting to see how little memory the PDP-7 had when Unix was created.

Tim

[Pr0f]

Recursion - a very bad thing when you are trying to find the bad guy in the hall of mirrors - "Enter the Dragon" - Bruce Lee.