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Most 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 y

Most 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 ago
I 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 ago
I 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 ago
  The 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.

clifanatic 10y ago

I 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 ago

I 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 ago
The 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.