Linus Torvalds Writes “Good Code”

KernelTrap is reviewing the Linux process scheduler code over the years. The original code was written by none other than Linus Torvalds who described it in a 1993 email, ‘the linux scheduling algorithm is one of the simplest ones possible’. An entertaining (and historically prescient) comment in the code proclaimed, ‘this is GOOD CODE! There probably won’t be any reason to change this, as it should work well in all circumstances (ie gives IO-bound processes good response etc).’ The simple algorithm was evidently good code as advertised, judged by the fact that it took over a decode for another developer to come along with something better.