Leap

Computer Science. Technology. Impression

For the glory of giants

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants should explain the title. Everyone I’ve learned from counts. I don’t even know their names because there are so many of them. But they shall be remembered :pray: .


I should have written this a couple of years ago, during my undergraduate studies. Because it was then I felt this.

There are times where you’ll dream of writing those complex applications while you are practicing programs – for example a program to add to two integers :sweat_smile: . But it will definitely take some time to realise that it’ll take good amount of knowledge of underlying systems to work on complex applications.

There was a feeling of discomfort for me while learning C after practicing Python. Because Python seemed far easier than C with lot of built-in constructs. But that discomfort made me question those high-level constructs. That questioning helped me understanding the motivation and design behind those high-level constructs.

As I was exploring C, I had an opportunity to understand many concepts that make up software systems as we see them today. The C Programming Language book by Dennis M. Ritchie and Brian Kernighan helped me so much. It explains C language in conjunction with the UNIX concepts. That book is concise, precise and always tops my favorite books list. In fact every book by Brian Kernighan is worth reading.

C language also played an important role in development of the UNIX operating system. We all know that the Unix philosophy is a good guide for software development.

UNIX pipe contributed by Douglas McIlroy is still favorite of many people out there.

Documentaries about UNIX:

Soon after I’ve learned the still living impact of C language and the UNIX philosophy, I had to do this drawing and stick in my class room.

DMR

About C language:

Unix Tutorials:

Dennis M. Ritchie:

About bell labs:

To be continued …