Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011: Computer Scientist, Unix Co-Creator, C Programming Language Designer

end of an era.

C the lingua franca for engineer to processor communication.

He had a partner in the C language creation, if I remember.

I think that he deserves at least the same media coverage as Steve Jobs! Without C, programming would not have had the same attraction and progress. Unix, Windows, Apple OSes etc almost if not all operating systems depend on C.

I thing that C had the most inpact on creativity in computer programming ... He needs to be Honored by all the hackers as well ...

I was thinking the same thing. The impact of C as a programming language, and therefore, software proliferation, has had at least as great an impact on the "computer industry" as what Steve Jobs did. So many people have been cogs on the gears of technological advancement. This is why no matter how much it appears that "individuals" are responsible for technological advancement, it really is a community effort.

He had a partner in the C language creation, if I remember.

I learned C from the K&R "bible". I believe you are referring to Brian Kernighan.

If you look at the Wikipedia article on Kernighan,he stated that C was totally Ritchie's work.

"Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the C programming language with Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan has said that he had no part in the design of the C language ("it's entirely Dennis Ritchie's work").^[1] He authored many Unix programs, including ditroff, and cron for Version 7 Unix."

I agree...Dennis Ritchie was probably far more instrumental in the development and popularization of computer technology than Steve Jobs- his work appears on ALL platforms, not just Apple products...