If you ever programmed in C, or C++, or C#, or Java, or any of a number of languages strongly influenced by C, or used Unix, Linux, or any of the operating systems strongly influenced by Unix, then you know, or should know, who Dennis Ritchie is. He is one of the fathers of Unix and C.
Ritchie has died.
Wow, this hit me as Steve Jobs' death didn't (mostly because I'd done so much Unix and C work in the '80's and 90's but also because I wasn't a Steve Jobs fan).
ReplyDeleteA huge loss for the industry, but as a man he had an immense effect on computing.
ReplyDeleteBack in school I had a choice to learn this new and relatively unknown C language or Pascal, and I choose C because of my background in assembler. It served me well when I wound up having to run the student Unix labs back when Unix was taking over engineering. C and Unix had roots in other systems, but Dennis did a good job in distilling a compact, well thought out and relatively logical system.