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Dennis Ritchie

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computing People

   Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (born September 9, 1941) is a computer
   scientist notable for his influence on ALTRAN, B, BCPL, C, Multics, and
   Unix. He received the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of
   Technology in 1998. Ritchie is currently the head of Lucent
   Technologies' System Software Research Department.

Background

   Born in Bronxville, New York, Ritchie graduated from Harvard with
   degrees in physics and applied mathematics. In 1967, he began working
   at the Bell Labs' Computing Sciences Research Centre.

C and Unix

   Ritchie is 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 (book), commonly
   referred to as K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie).
   Ken Thompson (left) with Dennis Ritchie (right)
   Ken Thompson (left) with Dennis Ritchie (right)

   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 and operating system development and its influence is seen
   in modern programming languages such as C++ and C#. Unix has also been
   influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now
   well-established precepts of computing. The popular GNU/Linux operating
   system and its tools are descendants of Ritchie's work, and the Windows
   operating systems include Unix compatibility tools and C compilers for
   developers.

   Ritchie has said that creating the C language "looked like a good thing
   to do", and that anyone else in the same place at the same time would
   have done the same thing, though Bell Labs colleague Bjarne Stroustrup,
   developer of C++ said that "If Dennis had decided to spend that decade
   on esoteric math, Unix would have been stillborn."

   Following the success of Unix, Ritchie continued research into
   operating systems and programming languages, with contributions to the
   Plan 9 and Inferno operating systems, and the Limbo programming
   language.

Awards

   Thompson, Ritchie and Clinton
   Enlarge
   Thompson, Ritchie and Clinton

Turing Award

   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."

National Medal of Technology

   On April 27, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the 1998
   National Medal of Technology 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

Nicknames

   Dennis Ritchie is often referred to as "dmr" (his Bell Labs email
   address) in various Usenet newsgroups (such as comp.lang.c).

Writings by Ritchie

     * The C Programming Language ( 1978 with Brian Kernighan see K&R)
     * Unix Programmer's Manual ( 1971)

Quotes

     * "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the demigodic
       party."
     * "Usenet is a strange place."
     * "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a
       genius to understand the simplicity."

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