II · Languages & runtimes
Ken Thompson
1943–
Bell Labs · Google · co-creator of Unix · co-creator of Go
Gave us
Unix (with Ritchie). The B language (precursor to C). Regular-expression engines. Endgame chess databases. Co-designed Go at Google in 2007.
The story
A career that spans the design of multiple foundational systems decades apart. Wrote his "Reflections on Trusting Trust" Turing Award lecture about a compiler self-reproducing a backdoor.
"When in doubt, use brute force."