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| Herbert Schildt | |
|---|---|
| Name | Herbert Schildt |
| Birth date | 1951 |
| Occupation | Computer programmer, author, musician |
| Known for | Books on C, C++, Java |
Herbert Schildt Herbert Schildt is an American programmer, author, and musician known for a series of widely used programming books and tutorials on C, C++, and Java. His work became prominent during the rise of personal computing alongside companies and technologies such as Microsoft, Intel, IBM PC, Sun Microsystems, and the Personal Computer Revolution. Schildt's books were extensively sold through publishers like McGraw-Hill Education, affecting generations of readers during eras defined by MS-DOS, Windows, and Unix.
Schildt was born in 1951 and grew up during the expansion of Silicon Valley and the broader Cold War era technological boom that produced institutions like Bell Labs and ARPA. He pursued studies aligned with computing advances occurring at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University—environments that fostered work by figures like Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Bjarne Stroustrup, and James Gosling. Schildt's formative years coincided with the publication of foundational texts by authors associated with Prentice Hall and O'Reilly Media.
Schildt built a career as a technical author and educator, writing for mainstream publishers including McGraw-Hill Education and Osborne Media. He authored introductory and reference works that addressed language standards promulgated by groups such as ANSI and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22. His books covered implementations and toolchains linked to vendors like Borland and Microsoft Visual C++, and platforms from Sun Microsystems to GNU Project toolsets. Schildt also participated in the broader publishing ecosystem alongside contemporaries like Herb Sutter, Scott Meyers, Bjarne Stroustrup, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, and Brian Kernighan.
Schildt wrote extensively on C, C++, Java, and on development practices relevant to compilers from GCC and proprietary compilers from Microsoft and Borland International. His texts sought to explain language features introduced by standards committees such as ANSI C and ISO/IEC bodies, and to relate runtime behavior on systems like Windows NT, BSD, and Linux. Schildt's work engaged with topics also treated by authors and researchers such as Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, James Gosling, Donald Knuth, and Guy L. Steele Jr..
Schildt's books achieved wide distribution and commercial success, becoming common on shelves alongside works by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, Scott Meyers, and Herb Sutter. His writing received praise from many readers and reviewers within communities organized around Usenet, Stack Overflow, and local computer user group chapters. However, his work also attracted criticism from language designers and academics including Dennis Ritchie and Bjarne Stroustrup who raised concerns about technical inaccuracies and interpretations of language standards. Debates over his explanations occurred in venues such as ACM, IEEE, and in online archives maintained by organizations like The Free Software Foundation and ISO mailing lists.
Outside publishing, Schildt has had interests in music and performance, connecting him to scenes influenced by cultural institutions such as Broadway, Grammy Awards, and regional arts organizations. His career intersected with corporate and community entities including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Apple Inc., and local computer clubs that promoted programming literacy during the Personal Computer Revolution.
Schildt's books impacted many self-taught programmers and early adopters of languages during transitions shaped by events and technologies like the emergence of Intel 8086, the release of Windows 3.1, the standardization efforts of ANSI, and the creation of Java SE. His publications circulated alongside canonical texts by Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, James Gosling, and Donald Knuth, securing a place in the popular instructional literature that supported development communities centered on GNU Project, Free Software Foundation, Stack Overflow, and university courses at institutions such as MIT, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University.
Category:American computer programmers Category:Technical writers