OpenGear Networks
Friday, 14 October 2011
Dennis Ritchie passed away on the 12th of October 2011. With his passing away, an era comes to an end. Dennis' contributions touch practically everything related to computers today, including the iEverythings. It is sad that the world at large is still unaware of who he his and of the immensity of his contributions. There were mentions of his passing, but they sadly fall significantly short of what he very richly deserves. Fortunately there are a few choice write-ups (links below). Wired[9] has opening lines that sum it up very nicely:
The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.
And then some.
Anyway, here are a number of tributes, eulogies and obituaries for him. Special mention to [12], Rob Pike's mention of Dennis Ritchie's passing away on Google+, and to [13], which is not an obituary but Ritchie's Lecture on winning the Turing Award from the August 1984 issue of Communications of the ACM (cf [10]).
URL[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/technology/dennis-ritchie-programming-trailblazer-dies-at-70.html
URL[2]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/13/dennis-ritchie
URL[3]: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/10/obituary-0
URL[4]: http://www.economist.com/node/21536536
URL[5]: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/13/0328230/dennis-ritchie-creator-of-c-programming-language-passed-away
URL[6]: http://www.acm.org/news/featured/ritchie
URL[7]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/dennis-ritchie-founder-of-unix-and-c-dies-at-70/2011/10/13/gIQAXsVXiL_story.html
URL[8]: http://www.economist.com/node/2724348
URL[9]: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/thedennisritchieeffect/
URL[10]: http://www.acm.org/news/featured/ritchie
URL[11]: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/dennis_ritchie_the_geek_prometheus/
URL[12]: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101960720994009339267/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP?hl=en
URL[13]: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=358207&dl=ACM