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Comment by relaxing

11 hours ago

Rob Pike wrote Unix and Golang, but sure, you’re built different.

Rob Pike is responsible for many cool things, but Unix isn't one of them. Go is a wonderful hybrid (with its own faults) of the schools of Thompson and Wirth, with a huge amount of Pike.

If you'd said Plan 9 and UTF-8 I'd agree with you.

  • Rob Pike definitely wrote large chunks of Unix while at Bell Labs. It's wrong to say he wrote all of it like the GP did but it is also wrong to diminish his contributions.

    Unless you meant to imply that UNIX isn't cool.

    • I did not say he wrote all of it. “Write” can include co-authorship.

      A lot of people are learning some history today, beautiful to see.

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> Rob Pike wrote Unix

Unix was created by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs (AT&T) in 1969. Thompson wrote the initial version, and Ritchie later contributed significantly, including developing the C programming language, which Unix was subsequently rewritten in.

  • Pike didn’t create Unix initially, but was a contributor to it. He, with a team, unquestionably wrote it.

    • > but was a contributor to it. He, with a team, unquestionably wrote it.

      contribute < wrote.

      His credits are huge, but I think saying he wrote Unix is misattribution.

      Credits include: Plan 9 (successor to Unix), Unix Window System, UTF-8 (maybe his most universally impactful contribution), Unix Philosophy Articulation, strings/greps/other tools, regular expressions, C successor work that ultimately let him to Go.

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Do you think Rob Pike ever decided that maybe what was done before isn't good enough? Stop putting artificial limits on your own competency.