Historical Figure
Dennis Ritchie
1941–2011
American computer scientist known for Unix
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Biography
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie was an American computer scientist. He created, together with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system, C programming language, and B programming language.
Timeline
The story of Dennis Ritchie, told in moments.
Joined Bell Labs Computing Science Research Center. He completed a Ph.D. thesis at Harvard on computational complexity but never formally received the degree.
Created the C programming language at Bell Labs. It was designed to write systems software for Unix. C remains one of the most widely used programming languages in history.
With Ken Thompson, rewrote the Unix operating system in C. The decision made Unix portable across different hardware. Nearly every modern operating system traces its lineage to this work.
Died at 70, alone in his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Steve Jobs had died a week earlier and dominated the news. Ritchie's death passed with far less attention, though his inventions underpinned Jobs' products.
In Their Own Words (15)
[C has] the power of assembly language and the convenience of … assembly language.
Quoted in Cade Metz, "Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On", Wired, 13 October 2011., 2011
What we wanted to preserve was not just a good environment in which to do programming, but a system around which fellowship could form. We knew from experience that the essence of communal computing, as supplied by remote-access, time-shared machines, is not just to type programs into a terminal instead of a keypunch, but to encourage close communication.
In a 1980 lecture "The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System", as quoted in Christopher Negus, Linux Bible 2010 Edition (2010),, 2010
I think one of the interesting things about the Linux phenomenon is that [Linus] has been able to keep some kind of control over such an amazingly extended development environment. I’m certainly glad that I didn’t have to develop C in public, because you get more suggestions than you really want. Being in this nice, small group, you can control that sort of thing. I honestly don’t know the dynamics and the details of the Linux kernel project. However, one of the knocks on Linux is that it is undisciplined. But I think probably the fairer observation is that it is amazingly disciplined, compared to what you would expect, given the nature of the endeavor.
2001
I don’t really distinguish between Linux and things that are more or less direct descendants of Unix. I think they’re all the same at some level. Often, people ask me, "Do you feel jealous about Linux being the big thing." And the answer is no, for the same reason. I think they’re the same.
2001
My own computational world is a strange blend of Plan 9, Windows, and Inferno. I very much admire Linux's growth and vigor. Occasionally, people ask me much the same question [about Linux], but posed in a way that seems to expect an answer that shows jealousy or irritation about Linux vs. Unix as delivered and branded by traditional companies. Not at all; I think of both as the continuation of ideas that were started by Ken and me and many others, many years ago.
1999
Artifacts (15)
It wasn't experimentation. I fell in love with a woman for five years. An experi...
Crokos lived together in Los Angeles, California. Speaking to Gay Star News about the relationship, she said: "It wasn't experimentation. I fell in love with a woman for five years. An experiment...
People call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who's in my bed and...
a woman for five years. An experiment doesn't last five years." Asked about the relationship, Mel B said: "People call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who's in my bed and that's it. I...
I just said it was like a little thing and we giggled about it the next day and ...
saying that the press reports following the interview had been "hurtful to her family". Mel B later said: "I just said it was like a little thing and we giggled about it the next day and that’s that....
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