csmart 472 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 Dennis Ritchie, father of C programming language passed away. He is also co founder of Linux. The most people may not be aware of his contributions to tech world except programmers. It is because of him, we can see today's various app on iPhones and other tech gadgets. C++, Java all are here because of C. Rest In Peace. Source Father of "C" Programming Language Dies at 70 Longtime colleague Rob Pike reports that the "father of the C programming language" died over the weekend at age 70. Zoom Over on Google+, Google engineer and publisher Rob Pike announced that longtime colleague Dennis Ritchie, father of the "C" programming language, has died at age 70. According to Pike, Ritchie passed away at his home on Saturday, October 8, following a long illness. "I trust there are people here who will appreciate the reach of his contributions and mourn his passing appropriately," Pike said. "He was a quiet and mostly private man, but he was also my friend, colleague, and collaborator, and the world has lost a truly great mind." Bell Labs president Jeong Kim backed up the report with an official statement he released to employees on Thursday. "Dennis was well loved by his colleagues at Bell Labs, and will be greatly missed," Kim said. "He was truly an inspiration to all of us, not just for his many accomplishments, but because of who he was as a friend, an inventor, and a humble and gracious man." Born in Bronxville, New York in September 1941, Ritchie graduated from Harvard with degrees in mathematics and physics before signing on with Bell Labs in 1968. He teamed up with engineer Ken Thompson to create Unix in 1971, and then created the C programming language in 1973. Since then, several variants have emerged including C++, C# and Objective-C. Outside of developing C, Ritchie also co-authored "The C Programming Language," a definitive book commonly referred to as K&R (after the authors, Brian Kernighan and Ritchie). He also received the Turing Award in 1983 (along with Kenneth Thompson) thanks to his influential contributions to the development of Unix, and was elected into the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for developing C and co-developing Unix. Adding to his list of achievements, President Clinton presented Ritchie (and Thompson) with the National Medal of Technology of 1998 for creating C and Unix. "The quality of life and economic strength that all Americans enjoy is due to the vision and dedication of innovators like those we honor here today with the National Medal of Technology," Commerce Secretary William M. Daley said during the award ceremony. "These Medalists have earned our highest honor for their work in creating life-saving practices and products, plants that increase crop yields, and the basis for modern computer operating systems and software." Ritchie was transferred to Lucent Technologies in the late 1990s as part of AT&T's restructuring. He retired in 2007 as head of System Software Research Department, but continued to maintain close ties as a consultant for Bell Labs. "This summer we were fortunate to celebrate with him as he accepted the 2011 Japan Prize for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming language at a ceremony in Murray Hill, NJ, which was viewed by Bell Labs colleagues around the world," Kim said on Thursday. "For many it was the first time they got to meet him and hear from him." "I know I speak for all of Bell Labs when I say that he made us so proud of him that day," Kim added. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 RIP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KapilAgrawal 340 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 May he Rest in Peace. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) RIP Dennis Ritchie... I can't even image a modern world without C now... No C means No C++, No VC++, No MFC & windows, No C#, No Linux, no iOS, No Meego, No Android, No Unix, No .net, No Oracle, No Mac, No Symbian, No Viruses {well almost}... C is the most powerful programming language... C is base for almost all latest technologies available today.. Even Java though improved, is almost a lite version of C++ (improvement-Single inheritance, but lacks extra powerful features like far-pointers, pointer to a fn , TSR, and soo many other low-level operations)... But still very few people know about Dennis Ritchie... Edited October 14, 2011 by KanagaDeepan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted October 17, 2011 i still lovingly keep my 20 year old soft cover of K&R ... RIP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
