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kottke.org posts about Dennis Ritchie

posted by Jason Kottke

RIP Dennis Ritchie

Dennis Richie passed away last week. Richie created the C programming language, was a key contributer to UNIX, and wrote an early definitive work on programming, The C Programming Language.

We lost a tech giant today. Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, co-creator of Unix and the C programming language with Ken Thompson, has passed away at the age of 70. Ritchie has made a tremendous amount of contribution to the computer industry, directly and indirectly affecting (improving) the lives of most people in the world, whether you know it or not.

These sorts of comparisons are inexact at best, but Richie’s contribution to the technology industry rivals that of Steve Jobs’…Richie’s was just less noticed by non-programmers.