Quick! Who's heard of Steve Jobs? Chances are most, if not all, of you have. Now who's heard of Dennis Ritchie? Unless you're a computer programmer, or are a hardcore tech geek, you probably haven't. These are two guys that changed the world using technology, one from a marketing standpoint and the other from a programming mindset, and unfortunately the world lost both only a few days apart.
We've already covered Steve and our love of the Apple IIe, but not we'd like to devote a little bit of our blog to Dennis Ritchie. Dennis was the guy we heard about in computer programming classes when we were but little geeklets working on degrees in computer science. He was the man behind C and UNIX and he was legendary within the community of programmers that dabbled in *NIX and other black arts of the computer world.
We've already covered Steve and our love of the Apple IIe, but not we'd like to devote a little bit of our blog to Dennis Ritchie. Dennis was the guy we heard about in computer programming classes when we were but little geeklets working on degrees in computer science. He was the man behind C and UNIX and he was legendary within the community of programmers that dabbled in *NIX and other black arts of the computer world.
Ritchie was born in Bronxville, New York. His father was Alistair E. Ritchie, a longtime Bell Labs scientist and co-author of The Design of Switching Circuits on switching circuit theory. Ritchie graduated from Harvard University with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. In 1967, he began working at the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center, and in 1968, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard under the supervision of Patrick C. Fischer.
Ritchie was best known as the creator of the C programming language and a key developer of the UNIX operating system, and as co-author of the definitive book on C, The C Programming Language, commonly referred to as K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie).Ritchie's invention of C and his role in the development of UNIX alongside Ken Thompson has placed him as an important pioneer of modern computing. The C language is still widely used today in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. UNIX has also been influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now precepts of computing. Ritchie was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for "development of the 'C' programming language and for co-development of the UNIX operating system."
Ritchie was best known as the creator of the C programming language and a key developer of the UNIX operating system, and as co-author of the definitive book on C, The C Programming Language, commonly referred to as K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie).Ritchie's invention of C and his role in the development of UNIX alongside Ken Thompson has placed him as an important pioneer of modern computing. The C language is still widely used today in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. UNIX has also been influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now precepts of computing. Ritchie was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for "development of the 'C' programming language and for co-development of the UNIX operating system."
In 1983, Ritchie and Ken Thompson jointly received the Turing Award for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system. Ritchie's Turing Award lecture was titled "Reflections on Software Research".
In 1990, both Ritchie and Ken Thompson received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), "for the origination of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language".
On April 21, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the National Medal of Technology of 1998 from President Bill Clinton for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming language which together have led to enormous advances in computer hardware, software, and networking systems and stimulated growth of an entire industry, thereby enhancing American leadership in the Information Age.
In 2011, Dennis Ritchie, along with Ken Thompson, was awarded the Japan Prize for Information and Communications for the pioneering work in the development of the UNIX operating system.
Information about Dennis Ritchie from the Wikipedia entry found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie
In 1990, both Ritchie and Ken Thompson received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), "for the origination of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language".
On April 21, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the National Medal of Technology of 1998 from President Bill Clinton for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming language which together have led to enormous advances in computer hardware, software, and networking systems and stimulated growth of an entire industry, thereby enhancing American leadership in the Information Age.
In 2011, Dennis Ritchie, along with Ken Thompson, was awarded the Japan Prize for Information and Communications for the pioneering work in the development of the UNIX operating system.
Information about Dennis Ritchie from the Wikipedia entry found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie
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