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Brian Kernighan

Unix Pioneer and Author

Unix AWK

Biography

Brian Kernighan co-authored “The C Programming Language” and many influential computing books. He created AWK with Aho and Weinberger.

Daily Work

  • Teaching at Princeton University
  • Writing about computing
  • Mentoring students
  • Giving talks

Challenges

“Good writing about programming is as important as good programming. People need to understand ideas clearly.”

Impact

Brian’s books have taught programming to millions. AWK remains a crucial Unix tool after nearly 50 years.

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