Re: Ken Thompson interview in IEEE Computer magazine (fwd)

Aaron Tiensivu (tiensivu@pilot.msu.edu)
Tue, 4 May 1999 19:03:29 -0400

> There are ugly places in Linux's code and mistakes have been
> made. However, that is what it is all about: Exerimentation and evolution.
> Several years ago, there were probably maybe 200-300 OS kernel
> programmers, scattered among a few companies. Now, we have a couple of
> hundred, maybe thousands, just here.

I'm making a vague guess but he might be looking at the amount of 'goto'
statements and the like in the kernel and many many camps of programmers
still think it is the work of the devil.. but they are handy for handling error
conditions and the like. I know that some of the 'gotos' in the kernel are just
because GCC used to (still does?) generate better code with them. I try to use
them like salt or butter.. sparingly.. :)

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