Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#111

Post by msl » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:21 AM UTC

nikcub wrote: post #95

zmitri wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true, he preferred the brackets formatted this way.

it is a sure-fire way to distinguish between developers who learnt to code a while ago from K&R and those who didn't. I can't stand looking at braces on new lines. It is all from back when a new line was something to be treasured as displays were bad.

Actually, my copy of the second edition K&R seems to have the opening brackets on new lines when it comes to function declarations, so:

main () {

but: while (){ and: if(){

I don't have a copy of the first edition at hand but I seem to remember that it uses this same style.

//msl

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#112

Post by BasDirks » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:28 AM UTC

sid0 wrote: post #107

BasDirks wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reeks of fanboyism much more. Don't litter the frontpage posts on our heroes with bitter comments please.

Don't litter the frontpage posts on our heroes Speak for yourself. Steve Jobs was not my hero. I respected him but did not like him one bit.

Our heroes = Your hero (Richie) + my heroes (Richie, Steven)

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#113

Post by cyber_lis » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:28 AM UTC

I'm really sad...

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#114

Post by alperakgun » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:33 AM UTC

bch wrote: post #66

5hoom wrote: post #12

This is really sad. Dennis Ritchie has made an incalculably huge contribution to the tech world. I know most here would be aware, but he is a father of both Unix and the C language, technologies which are the basis for nearly everything we as developers do. He helped write K&R, which many regard as _the_ book for C programming. This is the passing of a legend. Sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

Not only is K&R _the_ book for C, it's an example for engaging, lucid, just-right technical writing that any technical manual should strive for.

The conciseness of this book is what I enjoyed the most, just think it could have been 1000 pages, even more...

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#115

Post by alperakgun » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:34 AM UTC

steveb wrote: post #25

There are several billion people using many billions of devices every day. From the code in your microwave to massive computing clusters, virtually all of our software can trace its ancestry back to this man's intellectual output. I'm eternally grateful for his life and contributions to humanity.

good summary, we owe gratitude too him for so many things...

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#116

Post by Radix » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:39 AM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #104

barrkel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

alnayyir, you've been hellbanned. In case you didn't know.

hellbanned?

Banned users are not informed of the ban. New comments are quietly autokilled. This particular user, iirc, was a frequent poster who was notable for their additions. Which I'm guessing is why they've been told.

Viewing comments with showdead on is good but it makes viewing the new page difficult when half the page is auto-banned links.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#117

Post by Confusion » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:43 AM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #104

barrkel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

alnayyir, you've been hellbanned. In case you didn't know.

hellbanned?

Meaning his comments don't show up to anyone except for himself. A way to ban someone without him noticing it, so he doesn't create a new account.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#118

Post by angrycoder » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:52 AM UTC

sid0 wrote: post #98

keidian wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. When I first found out about dmr, I really really hoped the stories will flood in here after the massive Steve Jobs amount. Not to take anything away from Steve, but dmr is far more important in my opinion, and I'm sure many other geeks would agree. I'm glad he isn't just quietly being forgotten like I feared he would.

But Dennis didn't wear black turtlenecks everyday so obviously he's less important.

Both Jobs and Ritchie were important men. I don't know what you think you are going to accomplish here. Your posts are about neither of them, they are all about you.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#119

Post by jasiek » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:53 AM UTC

I remember attending one of his lectures on Plan 9 back in 1996 at Bell Labs. It's a shame he's gone now.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#120

Post by kalid » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:56 AM UTC

bch wrote: post #66

5hoom wrote: post #12

This is really sad. Dennis Ritchie has made an incalculably huge contribution to the tech world. I know most here would be aware, but he is a father of both Unix and the C language, technologies which are the basis for nearly everything we as developers do. He helped write K&R, which many regard as _the_ book for C programming. This is the passing of a legend. Sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

Not only is K&R _the_ book for C, it's an example for engaging, lucid, just-right technical writing that any technical manual should strive for.

That book is a reminder of a time when Wrox & friends weren't trying to crank out 5 lb tomes on .NET SOAP Interoperability. So many modern books read like a student trying to pad out a page count for a professor.