Software tools in Pascal
by Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger · first published 1976
35% recommend62% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Hands-on guide to building practical text-processing and system tools from small programs, valued for its clear prose and inspiring design; suited to system programmers and those who want to learn good tool-building.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2015–2020AMPL
Robert Fourer, Brian W. Kernighan
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 51 recommend · 5 mention1 recommend · 51 recommend
2008–2026The elements of programming style
Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger
Recommended by 30 · mentioned by 6930 recommend · 69 mention30 recommend · 6930 recommend
2008–2026Software tools
Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger
Recommended by 21 · mentioned by 3021 recommend · 30 mention21 recommend · 3021 recommend
2008–2025More programming pearls
Jon Louis Bentley
Recommended by 12 · mentioned by 1512 recommend · 15 mention12 recommend · 1512 recommend
2017–2025A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms
Jay Wengrow
Recommended by 9 · mentioned by 119 recommend · 11 mention9 recommend · 119 recommend
2009–2023Parsing Techniques A Practical Guide
Ceriel Jacobs
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 107 recommend · 10 mention7 recommend · 107 recommend
2010–2026A Fortran coloring book
Roger Emanuel Kaufman
Recommended by 6 · mentioned by 126 recommend · 12 mention6 recommend · 126 recommend
2016–2025Exercises for Programmers
Brian P. Hogan
Recommended by 6 · mentioned by 106 recommend · 10 mention6 recommend · 106 recommend
…Techniques: A Practical Guide Daniel Hillis, The Connection Machine Kernighan and Pike, The Practice of Programming Kernighan and Pike, The Unix Programming Environment Kernighan and Plauger, Software Tools in Pascal Donald Knuth, Literate Programming Glenn Krasner (editor), Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice Susan Lammers, Programmers at Work Wm Leler, Constraint Programming Languages…
on “Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?” ↗…the proofs. Finally, I think there is value in doing small interesting programming projects. Two older books, available used, with interesting projects are Etudes for Programmers by Wetherell [5] and Software Tools in Pascal by Kernighan and Plauger [6]. Etudes has my favorite exercise for trying out new programming languages, building an interpreter for the simple TRAC programming language; Software Tools has a number of…
on “How I learned to program” ↗Rummaging around the local mall bookstore in ~1982, I came upon 'Software Tools in Pascal', by Kernighan and Plaugher. I fell in love with the ideas, and the prose. It became the first of what is now a nearly complete collection of everything Kernighan has published (I don't have the AMPL…
on “Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan” ↗i recommend software tools in pascal to any system programmer. i was already a big fan of Brian Kernighan and Bell Labs. but what made me curious about the book was the essay against pascal that came after the book. the criticism felt (to…
on “Software Tools in C++” ↗…data structures (there are many), but you don't have to start there, depending on where your interest lies. Also consider hunting down the book "Software Tools". There's two editions, the original and "Software Tools in Pascal". It's by Kernighan and Plauger. They go through in detail and write a version of the 'ed' line editor. And if you really want to work on an editor, the CP/M world would love a new one. There, it's all…
on “Ask HN: How to learn about text editor architectures and implementations?” ↗…Programmer by Hunt and Thomas - Code Complete by McConnell For intermediate/experienced people: - Structure and Interpretation of computer programs (http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html) - Software Tools in Pascal by Kernighan and Plauger. - Programming Pearls by Bentley - Smalltalk 80: The Language and Its Implementation by Adele Goldberg. - Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming by Norvig - A Discipline…
on “Codeacademy for competent programmers?” ↗Found Kernighan and Plauger's Elements of Programming Style useful - interesting to see how many of their comments on Fortran and PL/I code still remain very valid problems. Their further book Software Tools in Pascal I found inspiring (along with SICP) as they show how you can build very powerful and useful tools from small modules slotted together - SICP showed me this in the extreme with chapter 2 ending with an…
on “Books for Programmers” ↗I suggest you add Software Tools in Pascal to your list of books to podcast about. Also by Kernighan. I own a copy of that book and think it is good.
on “Brian Kernighan on “The Practice of Programming” [video]” ↗There is also an edition using Pascal, "Software Tools in Pascal" from 1981, which might be a little more accessible than the RATFOR edition. I fully agree with the recommendation as such, though.
on “Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?” ↗Two older ones: The Elements of Programming Style Software Tools / Software Tools in Pascal I have read Elements and Software Tools in Pascal, and while partially definitely outdated ("avoid FORTRAN's three-way if"), excellent writing. Especially Software Tools in Pascal, which in large parts…
on “Ask HN: Examples of good technical writing?” ↗Finding 'Software Tools in Pascal' in my local mall bookstore, before I even had access to a computer running Pascal, turned out to be a kind of cheat code for my career. I marveled at the ideas and the writing and it set me up to acquire…
on “Brian Kernighan on “The Practice of Programming” [video]” ↗…of software that did actual useful functions. It was written in RATFOR, which is a pre-processor for FORTRAN. Some time later, they re-wrote the book to use Pascal, calling it (predictably enough) "Software Tools In Pascal". After writing it, Kernighan wrote this paper, basically because he was thinking "That should have been way easier than writing the same stuff in RATFOR. Why was that so hard?" I used Pascal for two…
on “Byte Magazine: The C Programming Language (1983)” ↗Software Tools in Pascal. There was a previous version with examples written in something called Ratfor, which from what I've read is a hybrid of fortran and C. http://www.amazon.com/Software-Tools-Pascal-Brian-Kernighan/...
on “You Owe it to Yourself to be Old-School” ↗Yup. Likewise, the version of `wc` from Kernighan & Plaugher's «Software Tools in Pascal» still compiles and runs with any ol' ISO Pascal compiler, and still does exactly what the manpage says it does. As an aside, I'm pretty sure K&R C is a subset of ANSI C, so any ANSI C compiler should…
on “Chrome browser for businesses” ↗You might find this interesting, then: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/bwk-on-pasc... It's Kernighan's view of Pascal after writing "Software Tools in Pascal". It's not (as widely perceived) a hit piece on Pascal. It's Kernighan saying "I wrote the original 'Software Tools' in Ratfor. Rewriting it in Pascal should have been much easier than it was. Why?"
on “Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan” ↗