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Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

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Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#121

Post by InclinedPlane »

sid0 wrote: post #100
chugger wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DMR created. SJ inspired. let's not compare both.

let's not compare both. Ah yes, the cognitive dissonance of an Apple fanboy developer who knows that C is far more important than anything SJ ever did yet can't reconcile that with their belief that SJ was god. Shame on Hacker News's audience that the front page isn't filled up with Dennis stories right now.

There's no shame, there just aren't the same type of stories about Dennis. Ritchie was a hacker, he created amazing things that were ahead of their time which have enabled a great many developers to build amazing things (including essentially the entirety of the infrastructure of the internet and the web). But so much of Ritchie's work was enabling and mentoring rather than directing and guiding (which was more Jobs' MO). How many tens of thousands of developers were enabled to do amazing things by Unix or C? How many developers had moments of inspiration and enlightenment as reading through K&R enabled them to achieve a higher level of sophistication in their programming skills? But how many of those examples make for good storytelling?

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#122

Post by navs »

I'll have to admit, I didn't know who Dennis Ritchie was. I remember seeing his name on the Unix Haters Handbook but that was it. Noticing the black bar, I googled and now, I'm enlightened. It's a pity many will never know his name or his contributions but if it means anything, this here Computer Science student would like to say Thank You Mr. Ritchie for all you've done.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#123

Post by SoupIce »

HardyLeung wrote: post #75
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.

Let's not compare the two legends. They made their own marks in vastly different ways. Both magnificent. I love them both. RIP.

Lets compare HNs reaction over them two.

Steve Jobs: Two days full frontpage of crying and "I remember him like this like that" and "wish I could have had the time to suck his penis"

Dennis m Ritchie: One post, most comments discussing relation of news to Steve Jobs.

Great going HN.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#124

Post by SoupIce »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #121
sid0 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

let's not compare both. Ah yes, the cognitive dissonance of an Apple fanboy developer who knows that C is far more important than anything SJ ever did yet can't reconcile that with their belief that SJ was god. Shame on Hacker News's audience that the front page isn't filled up with Dennis stories right now.

There's no shame, there just aren't the same type of stories about Dennis. Ritchie was a hacker, he created amazing things that were ahead of their time which have enabled a great many developers to build amazing things (including essentially the entirety of the infrastructure of the internet and the web). But so much of Ritchie's work was enabling and mentoring rather than directing and guiding (which was more Jobs'…

> But how many of those examples make for good storytelling?

All of them? Especially for HN.

But oh Steve Jobs wore a turtleneck to gray shoes, thats an amazing story!

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#125

Post by shazow »

luckydude wrote: post #90

Any chance we could get the guy who did the Steve Jobs Apple logo to take a wack at doing one for Dennis? I've never met Dennis but I've talked to him on the phone a bit, and exchanged a pile of email over the years, all about various Unix topics. Though I was nobody, he was always polite, always patient, always willing to pass on knowledge. I'm quite grateful to him for taking the time to exchange ideas and polish t…

I didn't have anything to do with any of the Steve Jobs Apple logo tributes, but here's my take on a Dennis one:

https://plus.google.com/109834643338395014064/posts/CWHKvH7d...

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#126

Post by guard-of-terra »

biot wrote: post #110
sid0 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

let's not compare both. Ah yes, the cognitive dissonance of an Apple fanboy developer who knows that C is far more important than anything SJ ever did yet can't reconcile that with their belief that SJ was god. Shame on Hacker News's audience that the front page isn't filled up with Dennis stories right now.

> C is far more important than anything SJ ever did That's like saying the paintbrush is far more important than the paintings of Michelangelo or da Vinci.

We don't have one historical person who invented the paintbrush. It's prehistoric probably. But we do have Ritchie.

And yes, ge gots to be far more important because he's first in the food chain. He invented the paintbrush and went on inventing the art itself.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#128

Post by davidmathers »

sid0 wrote: post #100
chugger wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DMR created. SJ inspired. let's not compare both.

let's not compare both. Ah yes, the cognitive dissonance of an Apple fanboy developer who knows that C is far more important than anything SJ ever did yet can't reconcile that with their belief that SJ was god. Shame on Hacker News's audience that the front page isn't filled up with Dennis stories right now.

Shame on Hacker News's audience that the front page isn't filled up with Dennis stories right now.

Right now 14 of the top 15 stories are about Dennis Ritchie.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#129

Post by peteri »

I read K&R at university in 1986 and found it to be a model of clarity, spent a year supporting Turbo C for Borland when it was first released (that improved my language knowledge no end)

Biggest problem was the first Turbo C compiler folded floating point constant division back to front which makes one of the early programs in K&R (Centigrade to Farenheit conversion) fail. That got fixed fairly quickly.

He leaves behind a truly amazing legacy of C, *nix and the K&R book.

Re: Rob Pike: Dennis Ritchie has died

#130

Post by rkalla »

malbs wrote: post #58
rkalla wrote: post #19

I wonder how many people here got to know Ritchie through "The C Programming Language", I am sure half of us have it on our shelves. It is amazing how many lives a single person can touch directly and indirectly. I hope Ritchie passed away knowing the unforgettable contribution he made to the world as we all move forward on a platform he set down for us more than 30 years ago. What an awesome legacy to leave behind.…

Actually when I read the post just now, I went to the shelf and picked up my copy of it and just placed it on my desk, he had a major impact on my life. I "feel" more of a loss about Dennis' passing than Steve's.

I know what you mean, there is all that nostalgia of going through that book so many years ago and learning the programming constructs that would benefit all of us professionally for years to come.
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