[Coco] Dennis Ritchie, father of Unix and C, dies

gene heskett gheskett at wdtv.com
Thu Oct 13 12:58:13 EDT 2011


On Thursday, October 13, 2011 12:44:13 PM Stephen Castello did opine:

> http://www.zdnet.com/news/dennis-ritchie-father-of-unix-and-c-dies/63145
> 70

As someone else on another list said:
He has executed the ultimate longjmp.

It has also been said that Dennis had been in poor health for quite a 
while, so the articles inclusion of:

printf("Rest in peace, Dennis",'\n'); exit(0);

Could well have been appropriate.  His collaboration in writing that pair 
of C manuals with Brian Kernighan also set a very high std for writing 
precisely and concisely.  They did in about 200 pages, what it took a lot 
of other so-called CS profs to say poorly, and way too verbosely, in 700 or 
more pages.  I have a 3 foot shelf full of others prose on C, but when I 
need a question answered, the little white books have always answered it.  
That to me, is one of the ultimate compliments.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
When you meet a master swordsman,
show him your sword.
When you meet a man who is not a poet,
do not show him your poem.
		-- Rinzai, ninth century Zen master



More information about the Coco mailing list