Following on the heels of the death of Steve Jobs is that of someone whose work has had a far greater reach than all but a few in the whole of computerdom.

Dennis M. Ritchie, the co-architect of the UNIX operating system and the creator of the ubiquitous C programming language, passed away at the age of 70. The announcement of his death may be viewed at the Alcatel-Lucent website. I'm not going to eulogize him, just repeat a brief comment I posted on the announcement page:

RIP, Dennis. You did good!

Yes indeedy. But Richie won't be canonised like Jobs is, and that's a shame. You could reasonably argue that without the work he did on UNIX and C, there wouldn't be any iDevices, or they would have crappier operating systems.

On the other hand, someone else might have come up with an equally brilliant alternative if Unix (and C) hadn't been such successful concepts (and you can say the same thing about Apple products).

Still... everyone dies; it's the only certainty about life.

The history of computing is dotted with key "moments" and cases of serendipity in which clarity of thought results in something really worthwhile being developed. Consider the work of Claude Shannon, for example, who while writing his master's thesis, demonstrated that Boolean algebra could be applied to the design of electromechanical switching circuits, and that said switching circuits could solve Boolean algebra problems. What he created, in essence, was the blueprint for modern digital electronics.

There's no doubt that alternatives to UNIX and C may have been developed by others, given time and circumstances. I think the reason why UNIX and C happened when they did and where they did was the work climate. The Bell Labs middle management was largely engineering and scientific types who were amenable to taking new directions. So the atmosphere there encouraged originality and aptness of thought. Had middle management mostly been MBAs and accountants, none of it may have happened.


You forgot taxes.

You stole my line.



I think Jobs was a bit of a showman. After the stellar rise to fame in the early days, he just developed a knack of repeating the formula. Surrounding himself with genius and knowing how to take advantage of it. Especially taking the credit. Of course, he paid the piper, so I guess he felt entitled.

On the other hand, Ritchie was the real thing. One of the genius'. If he worked for Jobs, we'd likely never have learned his name.

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Bill

Sorry!


Showman and salesman. The real wizardry in the early days of Apple came from Wozniak.


There are countless millions of computer users who have never heard DMR's name, or that of Ken Thompson, Rob Pike, Brian Kernighan, Lorinda Cherry, Vince Cerf and the many others (RIP, Jon Postel) who had a hand in shaping all this stuff we use everyday. I fear that when their time comes most will go mostly unheralded. They certainly won't get all the (somewhat undeserved, in my opinion) adulation heaped up Jobs. At least Ritchie was mentioned on CNN's home page, though not directly by name.

Be that as it may, we hardcore computer types know from where all this stuff originated. As your fellow Canadian, Rob Pike, pointed out: "It's really hard to overstate how much of the modern information economy is built on the work Dennis did." I'll drink to that!

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

..And the gov-mint stole my cash! Dagnammit.

BDD, you're right, again. The sad thing is that, especially in Britain, engineers and scientists are the underclass, whereas arts and media types are kings. I think that's why Johnny Ives, designer of much of the cool looking Apple kit, lives in the US rather than the UK (where he is from). It's also why Bruce Forsyth, an 84 year old TV presenter and entertainer, got a knighthood from the Queen last week ("for services to entertainment"). And also why we have The X Factor where wannabe singers stand up and make fools of themselves.

Now, we have a programme here called "Dragon's Den", where entrepreneurs pitch for real investment money in front of five very successful business people. This is about as close as we get to seeing true talent and innovation in popular culture. The only shame about this is that if the inventor / innovator doesn't also have a business plan, they are sunk, no matter how good their invention is, because the "Dragons" are really very hard-nosed.

So... hooray for original thinkers like Dennis Ritchie!

Not just in Britain, sadly the cancer grows... Worthless high speed bits of information from our liberal media machine is not much entertainment for us either... YAWN
IMO TV meant for the masses will lower your Intelligence Quotient.

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

He probably set up shop here to avoid the choking taxes you blokes have to pay.


We've got that crud here as well, where people who wouldn't know a good song if it slapped them in the forehead get on stage and demonstrate that compared to them, I'm the next Pavarotti.


We have someting similar here...can't think of the name offhand. It's the same format, however, and as you noted, if the guy or gal asking for front money hasn't got his sh*t together he/she leaves empty handed. It's a pretty good program to watch, and every so often, someone gets on there who has clearly done ther homework and, I feel, is deserving of investment capital.


Not many of them left. Methinks most of them hang around 6502.org.

So are you patting yourself on the back... or me?

It's a sort of collective encomium. Everyone here should be patting everyone else on the back for being able to rub two brain cells together. Now, if we could only get that capability from our respective governments...

• encomium - noun: a formal expression of praise

Wonder if I'm the only one who had to look up that word!

Better just put me down for one and a half brain cells, OK?

J.

"When you get an assistant..make sure they have... two brain cells, to rub together!"

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"My biggest dream in life? Building black plywood Habitrails"

For whom the brain cell tolls... Waste of bits from the brit's.

Put me down for 1/4cell per.

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Brain cells? We don't got no brain cells. We don't need no stinking brain cells!

Mine all rotted away from old age and excessive thinking, and were replaced by a whole bunch of 65C816 MPUs. I can't say I have originality and aptness of thought anymore, but I do get consistent results from cogitating...although not necessarily worthwhile ones.

I too get consistent results from cogitating - generally it's consistent bafflement!

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Shift to the left,
Shift to the right,
Mask in, Mask Out,
BYTE! BYTE! BYTE!