Father of C language - Dennis Ritchie is no more...

India
October 13, 2011 1:45pm CST
Yes, it's the news, first Steve Jobs and now Dennis Ritchie has passed away, it's the time when great people are leaving us. I still remember in my first year of engineering, I was (I am still) passionate about C Language and I read his book. It's an awesome programming language and his contribution to this world has made him immortal. RIP Dennis Ritchie..
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11 responses
lovedude
@lovedude (4447)
• India
13 Oct 11
Its very sad.. computer world has lost two big personalities.. Even I remember the my first day of computer lab with blue screen and no clue what to do.. later on came to know it's language of languages.. I salute him for his contribution to the IT field..
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lovedude
@lovedude (4447)
• India
14 Oct 11
we were using Turbo C editor.. and sometimes windows editor.. I am just 24 years old currently so I am talking about 6 years ago.. :-)
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mantis36
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
is there Blue Screen type of display before? I think its a Green Texts and Black Environment.... then later, new computers sold in the market like (80)386 95mhz computers that displays White Texts and Black Environment....
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mantis36
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
I think i heard that before, if i am right, its a C++ ?
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m4ndr4ke
@m4ndr4ke (219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
RIP Dennis Ritchie. C was the first programming language that was taught to us in scoool. I still have his book C programming language. You will missed Mr. Ritchie.
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
25 Oct 11
Hi m4ndr4ke, Yes, it's sad that Dennis Ritchie is not among us but his contributions will always be remembered, it's not about the language, it's all about changing the mindset of mankind about the programming languages and the way we used to think about programming. As far as programming is concerned, I find myself lucky, I started with the C programming language (Turbo C compiler) and then Java and .Net, so I didn't have to struggle with the black screen and old computers. I do remember my first compaq laptop that has 700 MB hard drive and 32 MB RAM and it used to hang if I run C compiler and a song at the same time. Thanks for your response, m4ndr4ke and mantis !!!
mantis36
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
you are very lucky because the first x-based dos program that your school teaches you starts with C-Languages..... me, i started with Cobol Programming and also DBase Programming.... but later, i learned Clipper 5.01 Programming as our highest subjects to learn....
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m4ndr4ke
@m4ndr4ke (219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
We had COBOL too but I prefer C. I just had to learn COBOL because it is a requirement to pass. Later, I also learned Pascal and Foxpro db programming.
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inertia4
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
16 Oct 11
Well I just read an article on Dennis Ritchie. It was very interesting. I never heard of him, but all this computer language had to come from somewhere. I agree that without Mr. Ritchie, there probably would not have been Apple OSX. But, remember, it might have been invented by Jobs himself. Here is another piece of history, windows as we know it, whether in a PC or a MAC was invented by Xerox. They had no need for it so Apple bought it. They reworked and tweaked it and what we use today is the result. It takes many great minds to create things like computers and the technology we use every day.
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
31 Oct 11
Hi inertia4, I do agree with you, creating such a virtual digital world is not a work of an individual, it has to be by a group of people or may be an effort from a whole civilization. At the same time, I am sure you would agree with me that there has to be some people whose contributions would be more than others and I count Dennis Ritchie among such people. I would certainly not compare him with any individual, he was a great person and his contributions will certainly be counted as priceless for our civilization. May god bless his soul, rest in peace, Dennis Ritchie !!! Thanks for your response, inertia4 !!!
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inertia4
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
31 Oct 11
Well, you're welcome. I agree, there are very few great intelligent people in this world. And eve though I have never heard of Denis Ritchie, I would agree he was way ahead of his time such as was Steve Jobs. These people catapult us further into the future. May they both rest in peace.
mantis36
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
So you are into xbased DOS Programming C-Language.... and i am sure you are using Windows 3.1 version before..... because whenever you booth your computer, DOS is the first environment that shows, and you will only enter to the world of Windows if you type dos command such as: cd win "then press the enter key...." dir "then press the enter key...." "type" win "then press the enter key to booth up windows 3.1 ..." ok, back to C-Language.... well, that is the most popular and more modern X-based dos languages compare to Clipper Programming, Cobol Programming, FoxPro and DBase Programming.... but i am into Clipper 5.01 DOS Programming it is a compiler as well as an Interpreter too.... the only thing that i abandoned Clipper Programming is because is it not easy and hard to make it network... not applicable to use mouse.... there is no graphics.... using PC SideKicks are good for writing Pseudocodal Program Instructions or using CopyCon (copy to console) if you want to make DOS program in a hard way... or simply type "Edit" in a DOS mode and save later your program istructions to compile.... wow..... i still remember my old programs using DOS and Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11 before the inventions of Windows95 and Windows98.....
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hora_fugit
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
14 Oct 11
When my brother got his PC it had DOS in it. Though I must confess I never learned more than whatever was necessary to play games. Later we used Windows 3.1 too, same as you wrote here. Much later when we were required to write programs for printer driver etc. we used Windows98 for its lack of strignent security. So once again I came face-to-face with the DOS interface which said "Bad command or file name." lol Hard to find that now-a-days...
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
31 Oct 11
Wow..this is the word comes to my mind when I read the comments of mantis, I mean, how do you know so much in detail about DOS level programming and about that old version of Windows? Your detailed explanation is just awesome !!! I have to agree with hora_fugit, I was a bit more late, I started it with Windows 2000 and I've never used Windows 3.1, first OS which I have ever worked on was Windows 98 and for programming I started with Windows 2000 professional. Anyways, the father of such a creation is no more among us but still we do have knowledgeable people like mantis using and sharing the knowledge. Thanks for your response, mantis36 and hora_fugit !!!
fantabulus
@fantabulus (4000)
• India
14 Oct 11
This is very sad news even Dennis Ritchie was not our relative or not familiar with us but feel sad he was the good language developer.
1 person likes this
dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
31 Oct 11
Hi fantabulus, It's not the blood relationship that creates the bond among the souls, it's the willingness of a soul to do good for others that is counted, he has done so much not only for one or two people but for the whole civilization, that is why, even though you don't know him, you still feel bad and so do we. Hats off to such a nice person, his soul has only left the body, his name will always be in our hearts. May god bless his soul !!! Thanks for your response, fantabulus !!!
vasumathi
@vasumathi (436)
• India
13 Oct 11
It is very sad that dennis ritchie is no more. C language is the father of many languages in the current world.
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mantis36
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
14 Oct 11
C-Language Programming defeated Clipper Programming while.... Visual Basic defeated C-Language Programming
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hora_fugit
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
14 Oct 11
Isn't C still used in system programming?
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
14 Oct 11
Yes, it is very sad indeed it's a loss to the digital world but good for Dennis Ritchie himself, he was suffering from some time. May god bless his soul !!! Let's not get into which is a better programming language but we all will agree that C is mother of most of the advanced programming languages. Thanks for your responses, vasumathi, mantis36 and hora_fugit !!!
smacksman
@smacksman (6053)
•
13 Oct 11
So few people will realise the significance of what he achieved and the difference he made to programming. C to modern languages was almost the same jump from machine code to Basic. He'll have a chance to chat with Turing now!
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
14 Oct 11
Hi smacksman, Just to let you know, you were the one who referred me to this awesome website. (Thank you so much for that ), if you remember at times, I have asked you about my doubts and fortunately, this is the first time, you have commented to my discussion. (Lucky me ) As far as C language is concerned, this is a language which I don't think will ever be outdated, now-a-days, programming is named programming only for name sake, these 5th generation languages are BS, you don't get the chance to use your logic, it's like MS Office and they call it VPL.. still programmers who want to do everything by their own, will prefer C language. It's a huge loss to this world, RIP Dennis Ritchie !!! Thanks for your response, smacksman !!!
hora_fugit
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
14 Oct 11
Now that's a shame! I didn't even know about it. And to think only recently I was talking about him so enthusiastically to my sister! Though C++ was the first ever programming language I ever learned(and like most), I know how much C has contributed to the world. And Ritchie has contributed even more! Unix gets over my head though... Quite weird that I learned C after its successor, thus noticing so many restrictions, but later found out C was much better for OS programming. It really is the origin of so many HL languages. RIP Ritchie BTW did he pass away on Oct 8th? I'm somewhat confused.
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
31 Oct 11
Hi hora_fugit, Don't blame yourself for this, it's the same digital world created by the master "Dennis Ritchie" that is keeping us busy now-a-days and because of this we are not getting time for the real world. Things have changed a lot from the 16 bit environment and definition of programming will also change in a few more years (thanks for drag and drop approach of MS). When I used to work on C/C++, I felt like a programmer where I used to implement the logic but now, it's all about the syntax and the options available in IDE, I hate it and I do miss that original environment where only the logic was required. You may check the following URL for clarifying your doubt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie May god bless his soul !!! Thanks for your response, hora_fugit!!!
Navoptimus
@Navoptimus (172)
• India
13 Oct 11
Oh no man! First Steve Jobs and now Dennis Ritchie. This is not at all happening. C language is the base foundation of programming according to me. Yes, it has contributed a lot to this world. God bless both!!!
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kundanraj
@kundanraj (660)
• India
13 Oct 11
It's sad news to computer world that Dennis Ritchie the creator of most famous programming laguabe the c language had passed away, He givd birth to tje languae which is core for each and everh aspects of computers. RIP Dennis Ritchie.
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
24 Oct 11
Yes, it's very sad news, Dennis Ritchie had actually created the bridge between the digital and the real world. C language is not only a programming but it's also the first approach to make it easier for the programmers to use the computer. What he did for mankind will not be forgettable. May God bless him !!!
markzucker
@markzucker (10)
•
14 Oct 11
I guess all of the techie people will be sad with this news.
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dollar3235
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
31 Oct 11
Yes, actually all those people who have ever been involved in programming, they know how interesting C programming language is and they can imagine the vision of this great person. May god bless his soul! Thanks for your response, markzucker!