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Lex Fridman Podcast

#109 – Brian Kernighan: UNIX, C, AWK, AMPL, and Go Programming

Jul 18, 2020
Brian Kernighan, a renowned professor at Princeton and co-author of 'The C Programming Language,' dives into the fascinating history of Unix and its evolution from proprietary to open-source. He discusses the artistry versus science debate in programming and highlights innovative languages like AWK, AMPL, and Go. Kernighan shares insights on learning new languages, the impact of programming on communication, and reflections on the early days of AI, merging nostalgia with a vision for the future of technology.
01:43:37

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Quick takeaways

  • Programming languages have evolved over time, with C focusing on expressiveness, efficiency, and portability.
  • Providing practical examples in programming aids in understanding core concepts and facilitates learning.

Deep dives

The Evolution of Programming Languages

Programming languages have evolved over time, starting with crude assembly languages in the late 1940s and early 1950s, leading to higher-level languages like Fortran, Cobol, and Algol in the late 1950s and 1960s. C emerged in the 1970s, offering a balance of expressiveness and efficiency, with a portable nature due to its association with Unix. System programming languages like C++ followed, emphasizing data structuring and efficiency. Later languages like Go focused on concurrency and offered an easy model for parallel computation.

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