Dennis Ritchie1, whom we all know as the creator of the C programming language passed away on Oct 12, 2011. We have lost one of the brilliant minds of mankind. I owe him this post for he has been one of the greatest inspirations in my life and the very reason that I am into programming.
The first time I saw Ritchie’s picture, for a moment, he looked like Jesus to me. I would say that the divinity in his face pulled into the world of programming.
It was during my college days that I laid hands on his book - The C Programming Language2. It is one of the most influential computer books I have ever read. I had read it at least a couple of times and referred it a thousand times. I read it as if I was listening to Ricthie teaching it. And so I had marked a lot of pages with comments and questions as if they are addressed directly to Ritchie himself. I had the book with me almost all the time. I even hide myself in the last row during other lectures to read the book. I felt excited reading the book. The book has a special place on my bookshelf to date.
C is the among the first programming languages that I learnt, and it has its influence on me until this day. In the same way, it still has its influence in the computer industry. So is his work on and contributions to the Unix operating system. Unix introduced the principles of a modern operating system back in the day, and also opened the gates of open source programming. Kudos to his contributions to computer science.
I believe he will continue to live among us and be remembered all the time through his work and creations. May his soul rest in peace.
P.S: Quoting Dennis Ritchie as the author of the book The C Programming Language, by no means, belittles Brian Kernighan, who is the co-author. The protagonist of this post is Ritchie and thus highlights his contributions.
