Computing: The unjust world – Process

MEXICO CITY (apro).-Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (who used the nickname “dmr” in some discussion forums), was born on September 9, 1941 and died on October 12, 2011. He was one of the most notable scientists in computer science. He developed C and had a great influence on other programming languages, as well as operating systems, such as Multics and Unix.

He received the Turing Award in 1983 (something like the Nobel Prize in computing), and was also awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1998. Ritchie retired in 2007 as head of the software and systems research department at Lucent Technologies. . Ritchie was a physicist by profession as well as having a degree in applied mathematics. In 1967 he began working at Bell Laboratories (today AT&T). In 1968 he received his doctorate from Harvard University, under the supervision of Patrick C. Fischer.

Dennis Ritchie is best known as the creator of the C programming language and a key developer of the Unix operating system. The most popular book is the one that Ritchie wrote with Brian Kernigham: “The C Programming Language”. The invention of C and his role in the development of Unix together with Ken Thompson place him as the most important pioneer of modern computing. The C language is in wide use and no doubt its philosophy has influenced dozens of other programming languages. When it comes to Unix, he established operating system concepts that are used continuously throughout the world today. 90% of Internet servers use some version of Unix, Mac OS X is a version of Unix. Come on, the influence of Ritchie’s work is enormous and vast.

Dennis Ritchie received many awards during his lifetime. He was made a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for his development of the C programming language and for his co-development of the Unix operating system. In 1983 Ritchie and Thompson jointly received the Turing Award for their development in the theory of generic operating systems and specifically for the implementation of the Unix operating system. Ritchie’s speech upon receiving the award was called: “Reflections on Software Research” (which can be read here: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1283920.1283939).

In 1990, both Ritchie and Thompson received the Richard W. Hamming Medal from the IEEE for having originated the Unix operating system and the C programming language. They also both received the National Medal from then-President Clinton. of Technology for Unix and C, which has led to enormous advances in hardware, software, and networking systems, in addition to stimulating the growth of the industry, achieving North American leadership in these areas of computer science.

In 2011, Ritchie and his close friend Ken Thompson received the Japanese Communication and Information Award for their work on operating systems, particularly the development of Unix. It seems like too many awards for the same thing, but that simply speaks of the importance of what these characters have done in the world of computing and their international relevance. Ritchie wrote, apart from the aforementioned book with Brian Kernighan (also known as K&R), the Unix Programmer’s Manual (1971)

Dennis Ritchie was a man of private character and despite his contributions, which are incredibly important in the modern world, they are virtually ignored by most of us. Come on, Steve Jobs, who died the same day as Ritchie, had impressive media coverage, although the creator of the Apple company did not program a single line of code in his life and even the operating system of Apple’s Mac computers is precisely a Unix version. I wonder what adjectives can be assigned to someone who did as much for computing as Ritchie, when there have been no shortage of people who (mistakenly) described Jobs as a genius and visionary. Maybe this just shows how unfair the world is.