Comment by andsoitis
11 hours ago
> 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.
Are you under the impression he was, like, a hands-off project manager or something? His involvement was in writing it. Not singlehandedly, but certainly as part of a team. He unquestionably wrote it. He did not envision it like he did the other projects you mention, but the original credit was only in the writing of.
2 replies →