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Thomas E. Kurtz has died

(computerhistory.org)
614 points 1986 | 2 comments | 14 Nov 24 22:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.427s | source
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WalterBright ◴[15 Nov 24 20:46 UTC] No.42150808[source]▶
I originally learned to program with BASIC. When I was designing D, I thought back to how easy and natural string manipulation was in BASIC, and what a festering swamp of bugs it was in C.

Having strings as easy and correct in D was a major priority, and history has shown that this was a success.

P.S. Whenever I review C code, I first look at the string manipulation. The probability of finding a bug in it is near certainty. Question for the people who disagree - without looking it up, how does strncpy() deal with 0 termination?

Thank you, Thomas Kurtz!

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the_af ◴[15 Nov 24 20:49 UTC] No.42150847[source]▶
Wow! I've read your comments many times on HN and I never realized you were the creator of D.
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1. samatman ◴[15 Nov 24 21:48 UTC] No.42151545[source]▶
I still think of Walter as the creator of Empire, who later went on to create D.

The FM synthesis Hall of the Mountain King will be burned into my memories forever.

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2. WalterBright ◴[15 Nov 24 22:10 UTC] No.42151779[source]▶
I keep thinking about training an AI to play Empire. It would kick ass!