Brian W. Kernighan

Esto le ocurre a los programadores todo el tiempo, aunque tratar con estos problemas es muchas veces mas complejo de lo que deberia ser, porque temas como prueba, depuracion, portabilidad, rendimiento, alternativas de diseno y estilo -la practica de la programacion-, no suelen ser el foco de atencion de los cursos de computacion o de programacion. La mayoria de los programadores los aprenden penosamente a medida que van adquiriendo experiencia, y algunos otros nunca los llegan a aprender. En un mundo de interfaces enormes e intrincadas, herramientas, lenguajes y sistemas en constante cambio, e implacable presion por tener mas de todo, uno puede perder de vista los principios basicos -simplicidad, claridad, generalidad- que sustentan al buen software. Tambien puede descuidarse el valor de las herramientas y notaciones que mecanizan parte de la creacion de software e incorporan a la computadora en su propia programacion. Nuestro enfoque en este libro esta basado en esos principios fundamentales e interrelacionados, que se aplican en todos los niveles de la computacion: simplicidad, que mantiene los programas breves y manejables; claridad, que garantiza que sean faciles de entender, tanto para las personas como para las maquinas; generalidad, que significa que trabajaran bien en una amplia gama de situaciones y se adaptaran bien a medida que surjan situaciones nuevas; y automatizacion, que permite que sea la maquina la que haga el trabajo por nosotros, liberandonos de tareas

xv, 238 pages : 27 cm

The fascinating story of how Unix began and how it took over the world. Brian Kernighan was a member of the original group of Unix developers, the creator of several fundamental Unix programs, and the co-author of classic books like "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming Environment."

Numbers are often intimidating, confusing, and even deliberately deceptive--especially when they are really big. The media loves to report on millions, billions, and trillions, but frequently makes basic mistakes or presents such numbers in misleading ways. And misunderstanding numbers can have serious consequences, since they can deceive us in many of our most important decisions, including how to vote, what to buy, and whether to make a financial investment. In this short, accessible, enlightening, and entertaining book, leading computer scientist Brian Kernighan teaches anyone--even diehard math-phobes--how to demystify the numbers that assault us every day. With examples drawn from a rich variety of sources, including journalism, advertising, and politics, Kernighan demonstrates how numbers can mislead and misrepresent. In chapters covering big numbers, units, dimensions, and more, he lays bare everything from deceptive graphs to speciously precise numbers. And he shows how anyone--using a few basic ideas and lots of shortcuts--can easily learn to recognize common mistakes, determine whether numbers are credible, and make their own sensible estimates when needed. Giving you the simple tools you need to avoid being fooled by dubious numbers, Millions, Billions, Zillions is an essential survival guide for a world drowning in big--and often bad--data.

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A compendium of practical matters of importance to working programmers.