Dennis Ritchie has died

[Mhurron]

Since we also had the Steve Jobs thread, it seems only appropriate to note that Dennis Ritchie has died. He was the creator the C programming language, a member of the Multics development group and one of the original 5 developers of UNIX at Bell Labs.

Every desktop system that we are all using right now, and a majority of the network services we use, has some part of it that he had a hand in originating.

[Armando]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

I didn't know of this man until just now. Those are some monumental contributions to computing. May he rest in peace.

[Aeni]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

I remember using that book that Dennis Ritchie wrote in my EE class way back then. I forgot what edition it was but I remember many of us were told it was the "holy book" on programming. I'll miss him and will always remember his contributions to computing.

[Armando]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

I remember using that book that Dennis Ritchie wrote in my EE class way back then. I forgot what edition it was but I remember many of us were told it was the "holy book" on programming. I'll miss him and will always remember his contributions to computing.

What book is that? Sounds interesting.

[Mhurron]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

The C Programming Language.

The C Programming Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Methodologies and computers have changed, so it's not quite the be all and end all of books any more, but it is still one of the books to have for programming C.

If you do look for it, make sure to get the second edition that covers ANSI C. Unfortunately there wasn't a third edition to cover later updated standards to the language.

[Aeni]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

What book is that? Sounds interesting.

Back then, in the early 90s, "The C Programming Language" was pretty much THE BOOK to own, along with David Patterson's/John Hennessy's "Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface". It was the foundation for Electrical Engineering (for those branching off into computing technology) I still have my copies here at home and would read them from time to time, if only just to think about how far we've come in the past 2 decades...

(David Patterson was a proponent of RISC as well as innovator of RAID)

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

At least you know how I felt when Mother Teresa died and everyone was too busy paying attention to the media frenzy over a princess dying in a car crash.

Princess Di - met some poor people
Mother Teresa - dedicated her life to charity

Though I think you're being just a bit unfair about Jobs here.

[Murphie]

Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

Both of your pat summaries of Diana and Mother Teresa are pretty off base.