Software Tools in Pascal

by Brian W. Kernighan, P.J. Plauger (Contributor)

With the same style and clarity that characterized their highly acclaimed The Elements of Programming Style and Software Tools, the authors have written Software Tools in Pascal to teach how to write good Pascal programs that make good tools. The programs contained in the book are not artificial, but are actual tools that have proved valuable in the production of other programs. Structured programming and top-down design are emphasized and applied to every program, as are principles of sound design, testing, efficiency, and portability. All of the programs are complete and have been tested directly from the text. The programs are available in machine-readable form from Addison-Wesley. Software Tools in Pascal is ideal for use in a software engineering course, for a second course in programming, or as a supplement in any programming course. All programmers, professional and student, will find the book invaluable as a source of proven, useful programs for reading and study. Numerous exercises are provided to test comprehension and to extend the concepts presented in the book.

Genres: Programming, Technology, Software, Nonfiction, Computers

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Brian Wilson Kernighan is a computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie and contributed greatly to Unix and its school of thought.

Reviews

[Adolfo]

This is probably the book that took me most time to finish in all my life! I started reading this in February and reached the final page in mid August, and this is not because it is boring or tedious in any way (in fact, I found it extremely interesting), but because the information density per page is very high.

The most remarkable thing about this book is that it is loaded with code for real tools not much different than those present in modern day unix systems. It includes fairly complete implementations for grep, roff, ed, m4 and some other smaller tools.

In summary, this is a very well written book, showing *lots* of code, and with a lot of practical advice on practical software development.

[Conlon Michael]

Kernighan and Plauger were the best writers and teachers of software practice in the early days of programming. This slim book showed programmers a collection of tools, as well as the principles for creating new tools with the same clarity as the tools the presented.

Very helpful for those of us building careers using computational techniques.