Quotes by Ken Thompson

About Ken Thompson:

Kenneth Lane is an American pioneer of computer science. Having worked at Bell Labs for most of his career, Thompson designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programming language, the direct predecessor to the C programming language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating systems. Since 2006, Thompson has worked at Google, where he co-invented the Go programming language.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you want to go somewhere, goto is the best way to get there.

Ken Thompson

When in doubt, use brute force.

Ken Thompson

A well installed microcode bug will be almost impossible to detect.

Ken Thompson

Grant, if we edited Fortran, I assume that you'd put a column thing in there.

Ken Thompson

I also have an idea for a book on biodiversity, and why and how we should be conserving it.

Ken Thompson

I am a very bottom-up thinker.

Ken Thompson

I still have a full-time day job, which is why it took me five years to write An Ear to the Ground, and why I won't have another book finished by next week.

Ken Thompson

I wanted to avoid, special IO for terminals.

Ken Thompson

I wanted to have virtual memory, at least as it's coupled with file systems.

Ken Thompson

I wanted to separate data from programs, because data and instructions are very different.

Ken Thompson

In college, before video games, we would amuse ourselves by posing programming exercises.

Ken Thompson

It is only the inadequacy of the criminal code that saves the hackers from very serious prosecution.

Ken Thompson

No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.

Ken Thompson

One is that the perfect garden can be created overnight, which it can't.

Ken Thompson

One of my most productive days was throwing away 1,000 lines of code.

Ken Thompson

So maybe I can go back to being a Gardeners' World addict again.

Ken Thompson

The average gardener probably knows little about what is going on in his or her garden.

Ken Thompson

The X server has to be the biggest program I've ever seen that doesn't do anything for you.

Ken Thompson

There are no projects per se in the Computing Sciences Research Center.

Ken Thompson

Unauthorized access to computer systems is already a serious crime in a few states and is currently being addressed in many more state legislatures as well as Congress.

Ken Thompson

Author Bio

  • NameKen Thompson
  • DescriptionAmerican computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system
  • AliasesKenneth Lane Thompson; Kenneth L. Thompson; ken
  • BornFebruary 4, 1943
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionProgrammer; Hacker; Computer Scientist
  • AwardsTuring Award; National Medal Of Technology And Innovation; Harold Pender Award