Tag Archives: computing history
Inventing a Database Server
A colleague of mine at Bell Labs, A. (Tax) Metaxides, was chair of the CODASYL task group on database management. He had been trying to interest people in the idea of using a specialized computer to do database management as … Continue reading
Building UNIX
UNIX was born from the ashes of the MULTICS project at Bell Labs. Although many people involved in MULTICS contributed to UNIX, it really was the creation of one brilliant software designer: Ken Thompson. As discussed in my previous blog post, Bell … Continue reading
How C Came to Be
One of the most important things to come from Bell Labs computer science research was the C language. Here is how it happened. In my previous post I tell how I came to join the computer science research department at … Continue reading
How I Beat and Joined MULTICS
I have found that the best way for me to advance my software career is not to try to advance it, not to make plans for the future, but just to find work that I really enjoy doing and do … Continue reading
Building Software Then and Now
The tools we use to craft software have changed radically since my first job, but the art remains much the same. Today it is not unusual for a 26 year old to hire and lead a team of programmers. In … Continue reading
Boring Software Job Becomes Bold Adventure
It’s a very good thing that my first job after graduate school was boring, because that boredom led me to take a bold step to fix it. My boring software job turned into an adventure and my most enjoyable job. … Continue reading
How I Learned to Love UNIX
Sometimes the confluence of several events, no one of which is significant, can lead to profound consequences. This happened to me in college and graduate school, where the combination of seven events led to my role in co-inventing UNIX. As … Continue reading