Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (source: Wikipedia)
I was very sad to read a post from Jon "Maddog" Hall yesterday evening revealing the news that Dennis Ritchie has passed away at the age of 70. Ritchie created the C programming language and was the co-creator of Unix with Ken Thompson at Bell Labs. The influence of the technologies he created is so widespread that it is difficult to communicate the magnitude.
Ken Thompson (seated) and Dennis Ritchie (standing) at a PDP-11 in 1972. (source: The Art of Unix Programming)
My first exposure to Ritchie was when my father (who spent his whole career at Bell Labs) brought home the famous K&R C book for me when I was in 8th grade. Over the previous couple years, HyperCard on my Mac had piqued my interest in programming, and I was ready to move onto something more mature. I've always enjoyed using C ever since, and some of my favorite programming experiences have been with C: learning the Win16 API (when I was young), the POSIX API (when I grew wiser), trying to write Linux kernel modules (didn't really pan out), and tinkering with embedded systems (which I try to make time for every night).
(source: Wikipedia)
Rob Pike, long-time Bell Labs researcher and colleague, has made some poignant posts to Google+ including one highlighting the most important email he received from Ritchie (aka dmr). I've been reading through various coverage and found Fred Gallagher of Ars Technica really captured the importance of Ritchie's work in his Wired article:
By creating C, Ritchie gave birth to the concept of open systems. C was developed so they could port Unix to any computer, and so that programs written on one platform (and the skills used to develop them) could be easily transferred to another.In that way, Ritchie has shaped our world in much more fundamental ways than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates have. What sets him apart from them is that he did it all not in a quest for wealth or fame, but just out of intellectual curiosity. Unix and C were the product of pure research - research that started as a side-project using equipment bought based on a promise that Ritchie and Thompson would develop a word processor.
Imagine what the world would be like if they had just stuck to that promise.
Thompson (left) and Ritchie (center) receiving the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton. (source: Wikipedia)
Finally, I just came across this golden clip of Ritchie and Thompson talking about Unix in what looks to be the 70s - fascinating! Doug McIlroy makes an appearance, too (he invented pipes!):
Code in Peace, Dr. Ritchie.
Sincerely,
Drew Fustini
-
fustini
-
Cancel
-
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
-
-
Sign in to reply
-
More
-
Cancel
Comment-
fustini
-
Cancel
-
Vote Up
0
Vote Down
-
-
Sign in to reply
-
More
-
Cancel
Children