Most of you probably don't have any idea who Dennis Ritchie is or was, but if it weren't for him you probably wouldn't have any of the cool gadgets you use every day like iWhatever and Droids and pretty much anything you can think of.
This guy was a true genius and was part of the creation of Unix and of the C language at Bell Labs back when they were producing some of the greatest stuff ever to come out of a corporate lab system - including the stuff from Xerox PARC which is where Apple got the idea for the Mac setup of Windows, Icons, Mouse, and Pointers.
I'm just a bit sorry that the passing of Dennis Ritchie - a guy who actually laid the foundation for a lot of the tech and gadgets that we all use all the time - is going to be overlooked, while the passing of Steve Jobs - a guy who told his engineers what he wanted them to build and then told us that we all wanted those things too - has been the cover story of every news and tech and marketing rag in the world. Steve Jobs was great at what he did, don't get me wrong, but he wouldn't have had anything to sell without Ritchie.
You should all buy his book on the C Language and just read it, even if you're never going to write a program yourself, because it's just that good of a book.
This guy was a true genius and was part of the creation of Unix and of the C language at Bell Labs back when they were producing some of the greatest stuff ever to come out of a corporate lab system - including the stuff from Xerox PARC which is where Apple got the idea for the Mac setup of Windows, Icons, Mouse, and Pointers.
I'm just a bit sorry that the passing of Dennis Ritchie - a guy who actually laid the foundation for a lot of the tech and gadgets that we all use all the time - is going to be overlooked, while the passing of Steve Jobs - a guy who told his engineers what he wanted them to build and then told us that we all wanted those things too - has been the cover story of every news and tech and marketing rag in the world. Steve Jobs was great at what he did, don't get me wrong, but he wouldn't have had anything to sell without Ritchie.
You should all buy his book on the C Language and just read it, even if you're never going to write a program yourself, because it's just that good of a book.
"You should all buy his book on the C Language and just read it, even if you're never going to write a program yourself, because it's just that good of a book."
ReplyDeleteProbably the best book of its type. Readable by anyone, concise without being obscure, complete without being too long. Actually, I think it is one of the best books of any kind that I have read.
I agree with you completely, Kevin. That's one of the finest books of any sort I've ever read also.
ReplyDeleteRitchie will be sorely missed by those in the know, and has enriched the lives of much of the rest of humanity whether they know it or not.