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It has been reported that Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the “C” programming language and one of the men largely responsible for Unix, has passed away. While Dennis Ritchie probably doesn’t have the name power of Steve Jobs, his contributions to the computing world are just as important.
For starters, C, and its object-oriented offspring language C++, are widely used in application and even operating system development. C made it possible to do things a lot of people didn’t imagine could be done in the world of computing.
And Unix? Well, it’s only the basis for everything Linux, including Android. It’s also the basis for Mac OS X, the operating system created by Apple. We don’t know if we’d ever have Android without these foundations, but we do have the foundation and it deserves a ton of recognition.
Likewise, Dennis Ritchie deserves a great deal of that recognition for his hand in all of it, as well. He died at the age of 70, though exact date and cause are not being publicized. We kind of hate that his passing is almost non-existent to people up against Steve Jobs’, but we digress. We’ll all know that he was just as important, anyway. [3News]
RIP
RIP Dennis, I hope you get the recognition you deserve.
RIP
Let’s not forget that Java is a spin-off of C++. I learned programming by Richie’s books. RIP, sensei.
CRAP!!! Does this mean Samsung/Google is going to postpone the Nexus/ICS announcement again?
o no!
This man is truly whom who deserves the true recognition from all media, people and people who understand science and technology…. instead of giving all the attention to the Business minded Marketing leader who was really an innovator then an inventor as he created nothing new or so called “revolutionary product”. RIP Sir!
Hopefully his obscurity means my FB wall won’t be littered with people who have no interest in technology posting his quotes for the next week.
As a programmer who owes his livelihood to Ritchie’s contributions (and derivations thereof, like Linux and C++), I’m especially sad to see him go, and grateful for his work at Bell labs in the 1960s and 1970s. He and Ken Thompson were geniuses who bootstrapped their own C compiler to write a multi-user, multitasking operating system on top of hardware that filled a room yet had less computing resources than even my digital thermostat today. For those of us born after this era, it’s hard to imagine what that world was like, yet Unix and C are still in wide use today, despite the gigantic technological advances since then.
He will be missed.
Another bites the dust
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/14/robert-galvin-former-chairman-and-ceo-of-motorola-dies-at-age/
He died Wednesday, it was reported yesterday… I read a quote in another article, and it applies, imo. To paraphrase: Although Steve Jobs was better known, Ritchie was the man on whose shoulders Steve Jobs (and many others) stood.
RIP to both men.
“We’ll all know that he was *more* important, anyway.”
Fixed.
It has been our honor to have Dennis Ritchie’s truly Revolutionary Vision be a source of our many livelihoods and pastime hobbies.
Mr. Jobs should have, and Mr. Wozniak still should bow to your genius, for they would not have had a place in computing without you.
RIP Sir.
I’m sorry but I must say read this then the post about Steve Jobs passing. I know we all don’t like Apple or its business practices, but in all honesty as humans and tech junkies I think we could have done a lot better. It is very apparent that more thought and effort was put into this than the post about Jobs. Jobs was an intelligent man who made the technology world spring to life back when there was nothing (not single handedly of course) and I think that no matter what he was CEO of he deserves the same respect as any other innovator and tech junkie such as ourselves. In the end he was just like us but with the know how and means to make something of it.
Jobs had his time now its ritchie’s let it go anyways ritchie did far more than steve jobs did in terms of importance so of course its gonna be more thought out. this is an android fan site anyways what do you really expect??
What are you talking about? Have you even read the posts by most of the fans on this site when that post came up? There were more posts on that then there are here. Steve Jobs was the guy that work in the visible spectrum. Dennis Ritchie was the guy that worked in the invisible spectrum. The one that everyone takes for granted. Without his contribution to modern computers, you, I, Steve, Gates, Apple, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Sun, would probably be somewhere else. So respect was given to Steve, but I think Ritchie deserves even more respect and has gotten little.
You, my good sir, are either brainwashed or retarded. This guy was a Universe more important than some over-zealous businessman. Jobs was not important at all.
RIP
Rest in peace, you’ve earned it !
While Dennis Ritchie probably doesn’t have the name power of Steve Jobs, his contributions to the computing world are just as important.
Just as important? Try WAY more important.
With out Ritchie, Jobs would not have ruled his cult to the high level.
Exactly! Compared to him, Steve Jobs was absolutely nothing. Steve Jobs was not that important to the tech world. I’m sick of everyone over exaggerating his importance. He was a salesman and a decent designer. NOT AN INVENTOR.
A butterfly flaps its wings…
Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc would be nothing without him. Heck, they likely would not even exist. And since Java has it’s roots in C, where would web content and mobile development be? It really makes you think. If this man did not do what he did, where would we be? You can’t really predict how important just ONE person can be to the world.
It’s funny because he’s quoted as saying that he found computers to be “quite neat”. It does puts Jobs’ speech at Stanford into focus. You have to live up to your potential and follow your passions even if the world will overlook you. That minor “neat” thing you like to do can change the world.
2 important people in technology die in succession. One was a tinkerer with an uncanny sense of marketing. The other was true creator and thinker. Ritchie will be remembered by the other creators of his time, and creators in the future. Jobs will be remembered by his customers and accountants.
RIP sir, without you, numerical methods would be impossible and therefore my career path with be incomprehensibly complicated… thank you for you contribution to the world!
printf(“Goodbye world.n”);
Rest in Peace
Thank you for your contributions they will be around for a long time to come.
This is the guy who helped make it possible for me to view this webpage on my laptop. Wow. Pretty much everything in our electronic world has this man as its foundation. Wow.
We should be thankful that we know the importance Dennis Ritchie created. That we know the evolution behind all things technological. Trust me that 99% of this world have no idea what works behind web & phone & such.
I.E., they have lives.
Now this is a man i will mourn on his passing. Jobs and Gates were mechanics, but Ritchie built their tools. RIP
truly sad. but hey it’s steve job day tomorrow
It saddens me that Richie was not covered as much as Jobs was. Maybe he wouldve liked it that way.
Richie was a modest man. A person of high interest in his work, devout passion, and ultimate sacrifice. He did what we all take for granted; he basically created the mathematical formula that allows me to type this one key known as a period. Without his coding not one single person who utilizes the world wide web would be anywhere without cracking their brain cells. Richie did what he did out of convenience and practicality. Richie may not ever live to the hype that Steve ever amounted to, but thats okay because Richie will always be praised upon for his epic contribution; a contribution with meaning, usefulness, and power.. not aesthetics.
A modern day DaVinci? I wouldn’t count on it. More of a modern-day tech-saint.
Sir. I hope you have an everlasting peace. Thank you.
Unlike the marketer Jobs. Richie truly changed the world! I still have my first edition of “The C Programing Language”. RIP