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Tech luminaries laud Dennis Ritchie 5 years after death
- AdmiralAsshat 10y agoI wondered why people were sending me links about Dennis Ritchie. I knew he had already passed and assumed they had found an old article, yet some of the links I received had today's date: http://www.reportsafrique.com/2016/10/dennis-ritchie-father-c-programming-language-unix-dies-70/ http://www.reportsafrique.com/2016/10/dennis-ritchie-father-...
- newscracker 10y agoMost people wouldn't even recognize the name, even among the tech crowd. The exact date of his death wasn't published when I got to know about it in 2011. The year 2011 was a sad one of losing some highly esteemed luminaries in the tech world - Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie and John McCarthy. When the news of Dennis Ritchie's death came out almost silently in 2011, I had posted a photo [1] of him and Ken Thompson working on a PDP-11 on a social platform and stated that he had touched and created the foundations for almost everything we use today (related to computing). It's difficult to describe the significance of the contributions of stalwarts like Dennis Ritchie, who worked on the UNIX system, the tools, C, etc., and how that continues to impact our lives and our way of thinking positively today (and will continue to do so for decades to come). His bio on the Bell Labs site [2] is worth a read. Curiously, I found that the link on his bio page about the book he's most known for, "The C Programming Language" (K&R), is on an Amazon AWS site. [3] I never knew it was translated into several languages, the covers of which are also seen on the same page. :) [1]: https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/kd14.jpg https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/kd14.jpg [2]: https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/ https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/ [3]: http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/belllabs-microsite-dritchie/cbook/index.html http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/belllabs-microsite-dritchi...
- clifanatic 10y agoI know the name well (and am looking at a copy of K&R right now), and I didn't know he had died either.
- BrandoElFollito 10y agoI read the book during my studies, also because it was hardly the only one available. While Mr Ritchie was a god in CS (and rightly IMO), his book was a nightmare to read for a student.
- newscracker 10y agoThe K&R book is not for beginners, and is hard for students. :) But it's like poetry (or something fantastic) for those who have crossed the "novice" level. Like someone else said, every word in it counts. Re-reading it later brings out its value.
- irrational 10y agoIf only there was some website where we could go and enter a name to search for information. I would call it Goggle for it would be like the goggles a diver wears while searching for treasure in the ocean's depths.
- mixmastamyk 10y agoDoesn't seem to mention the reason why Ritchie's death was overshadowed at the time. Believe it was that the news came shortly after the death of Steve Jobs, who was well-known outside the industry.
- newscracker 10y agoIt's because people who knew him and were close to him didn't reveal much about the date of death, the exact cause or other details. Wikipedia [1] just states this: > Ritchie was found dead on October 12, 2011, at the age of 70 at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he lived alone. First news of his death came from his former colleague, Rob Pike. The cause and exact time of death have not been disclosed. He had been in frail health for several years following treatment for prostate cancer and heart disease. Even Rob Pike heard of this news and didn't have more information. [2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie#Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie#Death [2]: https://plus.google.com/+RobPikeTheHuman/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP https://plus.google.com/+RobPikeTheHuman/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP
- CiPHPerCoder 10y agoIf you have made your living doing C programming since at least 2011 and weren't aware of his passing in the past 5 years, you're an embarrassment. Especially if you were too busy lauding that crook, Jobs, for being so "innovative". (He wasn't; theft has been around since the concept of property came into existence.) This is a lot like just finding out, say, your grandpa who paid your way to college and inspired you to succeed had died five years ago, but you were too busy mourning the death of that annoying frat boy who got drunk and drove his car off a bridge to acknowledge the news when it was being discussed by all of your family members. If it weren't for C... if it weren't for Dennis Ritchie... it's highly likely that most of our lives would be drastically different and probably for the worse.
- sctb 10y agoPlease comment civilly and substantively on HN. We don't need to call fellow users an embarrassment in order to respect the contributions of someone in our field.
- CiPHPerCoder 10y agoI was talking about the people discussed in the article itself, not fellow users. But it's a moot point now.
- happy-go-lucky 10y agoK&R is really a model for technical writing. Every character in it counts.
- losteverything 10y agoAm I the only former Bell labs person who reads / posts? I used to really dislike all the better techies talking shop. No telcom talk on hn like I was used to.
- Esau 10y agoI love Unix and I will always appreciate Dennis Ritchie, along with the rest of the Bell Labs team, for the good work they did.