Comments on: Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011: Computer scientist, Unix co-creator, C programming language designer

By: Isanka Wijerathne

Isanka Wijerathne — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:09:00 +0000

RIP sir…….!!!!!

By: sanjeewa alahakone

sanjeewa alahakone — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:30:00 +0000

The sad fact is not only leaving of Dennis Ritchie, whether we see another one in our lifetime.
Respect !!, RIP

By: Anilkumar

Anilkumar — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:31:00 +0000

our great tribute to u sir….

By: Max Arcidiacono

Max Arcidiacono — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:45:00 +0000

void()
{
int year;
for (year=1941; year<2011; year++)
{
printf("Year %d, Ritchie creates and enhances the C languagen", year);
}
printf("nYear %d, Dennis Ritchie RIPn", year);
printf("Incredible. A milestone in computingn");

while (1)
{
year++;
printf("Year %d, Thanks a lot Dennisn", year);
}
}

Source http://www.maxsoftprojects.com/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-rip.html

By: Stephen Carter

Stephen Carter — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:15:00 +0000

Penguins everywhere morn the loss of one of the fathers of us all. Thanks for sharing, Dennis Ritchie.

By: dragongardenia

dragongardenia — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:45:00 +0000

About six years ago, I was doing some work in the same building as where Ritchie was working. I asked if I could have an hour of his time. He was the only person that I ever really wanted to meet. I fell in love with UNIX 24 years ago. To this day, I still prefer pretty much any UNIX flavor over anything else.

When I finally met Ritchie, he was quite fascinated by the fact that a “young woman” could be so star struck by him. I say “young woman” only because I was in my 30s and didn’t consider myself so young. :) Anyway, I explained my background and we chatted about the development he did early in his career. I said to him, “You do realize that you and your colleagues changed the world, right?” He responded with a humble remark. Looking back at the experience, I was lucky to have an hour with him. For me, it was like meeting the “Roger Daltrey” of computer scientists. He was definitely a rock star. :)

Many years before he and I met, I asked him if he, Kernighan, and Thompson would sign a copy of one of their first publications. I sent the request via email and Ritchie’s assistant contacted me to say that if I sent the publication to her, that she would get it signed for me. I was shocked to receive the item back a week later in a FedEx envelope signed by all three gentlemen. That was more than 15 years ago. Talk about cool! :) I still have that item in my office tucked away with a couple of books signed by Edward Gorey. :)

I’m sad to see Ritchie leave us, but I feel lucky that we had him in the world.

Godspeed Ritchie! xoxox

By: tcadell

tcadell — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:06:00 +0000

I don’t mind the c code epitaphs. At least they’re all clear and concise, not too many of them trying to be extra cute.

Sadly, my copy of K&R 1st ed. was destroyed by water damage. It was my first programming language book, and I used it for ages. Very cleanly written with good examples.

By: carla isabel

carla isabel — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:18:00 +0000

I’m a fairly recent computer science graduate (2005) but the K&R book remains as one of the pathways that introduced me to the “think like a programmer” paradigm. The conventional wisdom with our professors was that, even though Java was prevalent, they preferred to introduce us to the beauty of programming with C. No fancy UI, just the algorithm and the code. It worked with less than half of the class; the basic C courses were widely known as the CompSci litmus test, and the attrition was high.

As a humble nerd to another, far greater luminary, thank you Mr. Ritchie.

And as to comparisons between Jobs and Ritchie, I’m no Apple fanboi, but I do think even as a non-engineer Jobs’ accomplishments cannot be denied. As others have said, Ritchie laid the unseen foundations that drive today’s inventions, and Jobs sold them to the customers, the “non-geeks”, the END USERS who don’t really give a bleep about pointers and such. And rightly so…

By: flasheridn

flasheridn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:20:00 +0000

I put a printout of this outside his office at Bell Labs. Someone had put up a huge “Dennis Ritchie 1941—2011” portrait à la Apple.com in the main corridor near his office.

By: Bam Bam

Bam Bam — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:11:00 +0000

RIP Dennis Ritchie… It’s been cool programming C in College… Thank You

By: vasher404

vasher404 — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:57:00 +0000

You have to thank these guy for bringing the programming language that helped to change the world in unseen way. Most people who knows programming probably started with C. Really an inspiration in though never had that popularity like any other pioneers in Computer Science and Computer Industry. RIP Sir Dennis.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:32:00 +0000

Hello World!!! That’s the first program I made using C. C is the first programming language I learned. It’s just basic language but it gonna blow your mind knowing that most of modern languages are based from C. Thanks for bringing C to the world. Rest in Peace

By: Tom Maatjes

Tom Maatjes — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:53:00 +0000

Ritchie,
Thanks for what you gave the world.
Sorry I never got the chance to meet you.
I worked at ALU (former Lucent, former AT&T) in The Netherlands and just retired.
I visited Columbus numerous times.
R.I.P.

By: Md.Ayyaz Mulla

Md.Ayyaz Mulla — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:51:00 +0000

I must say technical world has lost a genius , C is the first thing through which i got introduced to digital world , and same is true with most of us.. I was part of Alcatel-Lucent and bell labs , i worked in new jersy bell labs , where Ritchie acheived all those. I was proud of being with ALU and Bell labs because Ritchies association with it..

By: Dewi Morgan

Dewi Morgan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:36:00 +0000

“Surprisingly small “Unix beard” for someone so accomplished… ”

He was a master of elegant understatement.

By: EpiGrad

EpiGrad — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:50:00 +0000

Because getting into a pissing match about whose death is more tragic is productive and classy *eyeroll*

Rest well Mr. Ritchie.

By: Chrys Aureus

Chrys Aureus — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:10:00 +0000

…a meeting in the Pantheon of geniuses! RIP

By: Steven Harper

Steven Harper — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Dennis, without you my career would have been far less brighter. You started a generation of coders that still use your work every day. so long.

By: Narmitaj

Narmitaj — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:46:00 +0000

I used to work for Prentice Hall, the publisher of K&R, in the international division, based in the UK. I can remember sometime in the early 80s – say 1983 – that sales really began to pick up in the London bookstores I was responsible for, with Foyles, Dillons and Modern Book Company alone each selling 100 copies a month steadily.

I think the story internally was that the authors originally figured they would sell 5000 copies at most. I am pretty sure that by the time the second edition came along in 1988, ten years after the first, it had already sold a million copies worldwide. It must have been/be one of the most profitable books in history, as it is short and one colour so must be peanuts to print; yet looking on Amazon the official list price is $89! (I think it sold for around £20 even in 1983, though memory is fading).

By: bhaskar gollapudi

bhaskar gollapudi — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:34:00 +0000

How many people invent an Operating system such as Unix ? and a programming language such as C ? My respects to Dennis. RIP.

By: onereader

onereader — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0000

A sad news.

It feels like 10 years ago when I heard that Shannon had died: a true giant passed away without most of the world noticing it.

By: g kast

g kast — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:21:00 +0000

sync; sync; halt

By: Ed Joseph

Ed Joseph — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Why mentioned it like Steve Jobs is not like Apple products or Android products are based on Unix or use C in any way shape of form?
Oh wait! They do!

/* Dennis Ritchie Rest in Peace and Thank You! */

By: LightningRose

LightningRose — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:27:00 +0000

Farewell to the giant upon whose shoulders so many of us have stood.

By: nnguyen

nnguyen — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:11:00 +0000

so Boing Boing, where’s the site redesign for Dennis Ritchie?

By: Rashid Jilani

Rashid Jilani — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

Dennis Ritche is one of the real pioneer, most of the programming world just live under his shadow. Good bye

By: G Mc

G Mc — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:37:00 +0000

if ( dmr == null )
{
FeelSad++;
}

By: Vincent Wang

Vincent Wang — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:34:00 +0000

C is ubiquitous today across industries and countries. If Dennis Ritchie and/or Bell Labs seeks roalties from using C, he’d be lot richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs combined.

By: Srinivas B T

Srinivas B T — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:09:00 +0000

He is a Legend..Influenced the way world is today..
C is used for space crafts, medical devices, aeronautics,…
You are simply great..Ritchie..!!

By: Albatross

Albatross — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:47:00 +0000

“Looking at a C++ program, you can tell who is writing in C and who is writing in C++.”

That’s part of why I got out of coding in the early 1990′s. Couldn’t wrap my head around the paradigm shift (well, didn’t care to really). Found myself referencing data in Private space by offsetting pointers from the head of the data structure, knew it was time to get out…