#include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Goodbye, world!\n"); return 0; }

Dennis Ritchie passed away

Dennis Ritchie passed away a couple of days ago; the news broke yesterday. Somebody said of Steve Jobs that it was cool when they found out on their iPhone Jobs had died, that is to have a device you made be the thing that announces your death. Dennis invented Unix and C which are in almost every server, and router in the net and many phones and other devices. It's everywhere.

I'd love to say I knew him, but I didn't. I knew of him in the mid 1970s when I bought my (second edition) K&R book and we exchanged a couple of emails in the early 90s (which I'll try to dig up). He was somebody I wish I'd known better.