The summer of '77 is when I worked with the #UNIX group at #BellLabs. Ritchie and Kernighan were working on their famous C book. I present Draft Version 1: #ComputerHistory
@aka_pugs Do you remember your first reaction when learning C?
And what languages were you already familiar with?
@tant Loved it. Way better than PL/I, which I mostly used before. Knew FORTRAN, Assembler, Pascal, & APL.
@aka_pugs do you recall what you specifically liked about C over PL/1? I was always pretty fond of the data structure definition subset, but the syntax is in general a lot more verbose.
@aka_pugs do you remember what you though of it at the time?
@Dennis C was *so* much better for systems programming than anything else I'd seen. (FORTRAN, PL/I, Assembler, Pascal...)

@aka_pugs
Cool artifact. I've really enjoyed Brian Kernighan's videos on the Computerphile YouTube channel. Here's a playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzH6n4zXuckqZ90zLyy36qjO5YIn1RulG

#Computerphile #Kernighan #TechHistory

Brian Kernighan on Computerphile

YouTube
@aka_pugs Wow. I own a first edition but that's like alpha edition right there
@aka_pugs Best programming book ever written...
@aka_pugs That is just so rich. I've a copy of the 2nd ed. I used the book to learn, but also kept it because a cousin of mine who was just starting out at Bell, was briefly mentioned in the 2nd ed. Preface for helping with the typesetting.
@aka_pugs @mos_8502 I wonder, does the index entry for Recursion recurse in that version?
@aka_pugs the source of the one true gospel of cuddling elses
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange: (@[email protected])

Attached: 2 images Had to verify. And yes. Kernighan and Ritchie really did this. TIL :)

social.wildeboer.net
@aka_pugs This book was my bible in the early years of my endeavours in C. It is still on my bookshelf and will always remain part of my life.
@aka_pugs my copy purchased in β€˜87 has yellowing pages, as does my copy of Kernigan and Pike - the Unix programming environment. Bought towards the end of my degree, still treasured.

@gulfie
The Unix programming environment was published in French by InterΓ‰ditions (⚰️)circa 85.

This Book really changed my mind and my road.

Still yellowing here πŸ˜…

K&R C also, yes

@aka_pugs

@aka_pugs I have a well-thumbed 1978 bell labs technical journal, dedicated to C and Unix
@aka_pugs That is a piece of history.
@aka_pugs That is just so incredibly cool to me. Worked 20 years at Sun (Oracle) in the network storage division. It's great to find you here.
@aka_pugs I think we have a copy of this version in our museum display for John Lions in the School of Computer Science and Engineering in #unsw #Sydney. John wrote the Lions books on #Unix.
Chair honours UNIX veteran

The Sydney Morning Herald
@aquigley Nice! Of course I heard a lot about the Lions book, but sadly I never met him. I have a copy, not of the original, but of the later printing.