David Korn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Korn is an American computer programmer, who is probably best known for creating the Korn shell (ksh), a command line interface/programming language. The Korn shell is a de facto standard for UNIX-like systems and many other environments.
David Korn received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965 and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in 1969. After working on computer simulations of transsonic air foils, he switched fields to computer science and became a member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories in 1976. He developed Korn shell in response to problems he and his colleagues had with the most commonly used shells at the time, Bourne shell and C shell. Korn shell is backward-compatible with Bourne shell, but takes a lot of ideas from C shell, such as history viewing and vi-like command line editing.
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[edit] Korn shell and Microsoft
Microsoft once included a version of the Korn shell produced by Mortice Kern Systems in a UNIX integration package for Windows NT. This version was not compatible with ksh88 (a Korn shell specification), and Korn mentioned this during a question and answer period of a Microsoft presentation during a USENIX NT conference in Seattle in 1997. Greg Sullivan, a Microsoft product manager who was participating in the presentation, not knowing who the commenter was, insisted that Microsoft had indeed chosen a "real" Korn shell. A polite debate ensued, with Sullivan continuing to insist that the man giving the criticisms was mistaken about the compatibility issues. Sullivan only backed down when an audience member stood up and mentioned that the man making the comments was none other than the eponymous David Korn.[1]
[edit] Other software projects
Along with Korn shell, he is also known as the creator of UWIN, an X/Open library for Win32 systems, similar to Cygwin. Korn and Kiem-Phong Vo also codeveloped sfio, a library for managing I/O streams.
Korn became a Bell Labs fellow in 1984. He currently lives in New York City and works for AT&T Research in Florham Park, New Jersey.
[edit] Other David Korns
[edit] Computer Science
David will sometimes be confused with people named David Korn outside of world of computer science.
[edit] Academia
In an academic setting, other David Korns include Stanford University Medical School past dean and professor emeritus, Dr. David Korn, and Anderson University (South Carolina) Spanish professor Dr. David Korn. Former Foreign Service officer, David A. Korn is a writer and consultant on Middle Eastern and African issues and the author of Assassination in Khartoum (Indiana University Press, 1993), and Exodus Within Borders: An Introduction to the Crisis of Internal Displacement (Brookings Press, 1999). There is also another Dr. David Korn, affiliated with the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto.
[edit] Accounting
According to Internet sources, in the accounting world, there are at least a pair of individuals that share the name David Korn. One is David Korn, CPA, who is noted online in July 21, 2003's edition of trade publication Accounting Today as having worked with New Jersey accounting firm M.D. Oppenheim & Co. Web searches also note that a David Korn, CPA is credited with contributing services to charitable organizations including Sharsheret and openhousenewyork. (These references may be to the same David Korn, CPA.) Additional mention is made of a David Korn, MBA, who received his degree in Taxation from Baruch College of the City University of New York.
[edit] Entertainment
imdb cites five David Korns in the entertainment industry , the most notable being a writer for the Kung Fu and Police Story television series of the 1970s. The New York Times website notes a David A. Korn, a screenwriter who wrote Cash Crop.
[edit] Other
Some common misidentifications are with David Corn, the Washington-based author and editor of the Nation, as well as -- mostly in a humorous vein -- the drummer from the rock band KORN, David (Silveria).
Internet sites also note a David Korn, who is a consultant to the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program, who has lectured and authored articles on electrical power management.
