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Kernighan

Brian W. Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist noted for influential work in Unix, programming languages, and software engineering. He spent a long career at Bell Labs, where he collaborated on language design and system software, and he has held academic positions, including at Princeton University. He is widely recognized for his role in shaping early programming education and practice through influential texts and discussions of good software design.

Kernighan is best known as the co-author of The C Programming Language with Dennis Ritchie, commonly known

as
K&R
C,
first
published
in
1978.
The
book
helped
popularize
the
C
language
and
served
as
a
primary
teaching
text
for
decades.
He
also
contributed
to
the
development
of
the
AWK
text-processing
language
and
is
a
co-author
of
The
AWK
Programming
Language
with
Alfred
Aho
and
Peter
Weinberger.
In
1999
he
co-authored
The
Practice
of
Programming
with
Rob
Pike,
a
work
focusing
on
software
craftsmanship,
debugging,
and
testing.
Kernighan
has
authored
and
contributed
to
numerous
research
papers
and
textbooks
on
programming
and
software
design,
emphasizing
clear
code
and
sound
programming
practices.
His
work
has
had
a
lasting
impact
on
computer
science
education
and
on
software
development
methodology.