Dennis Richie the father of Unix and "C" language passes away.

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

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You would not have read about Dennis Richie's passing. Most of us have never heard of him.

But do you know that it is his work which made the use of computers universal.

Without Dennis Richie there would have been no Steve Jobs.

Without Dennis Ritchie, there would be no Jobs

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/without-dennis-ritchie-there-would-be-no-jobs/19020

Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/thedennisritchieeffect/]ZDNet Error

It is shocking to see that no Indian newspaper even reported his passing away.

But Steve Job's passing was top headlines. A man whose gadgets very, very few Indians could afford or need.

Richie's work benefited humanity. Job's work benefited the rich few. But the world now admires only people who have money.

I came back only to post about this.

Richie. On behalf of the millions of Indians who have benefited because of your work, I thank you. Your loss is irreplaceable.

R.I.P. Richie.

 

[N.R.Ranganathan]

Yes I agree with you. Please do not worry about the media's preferences.

Many people are dying of starvation and disease. These are not reported.
A plane crash killing 10 people will be in the first page of the newspapers
and will be telecast at least fifty times a day .

They have profit motive in mind but do not see whether an item is newsworthy.

Thanks a lot for pointing it. Sir, I shall tell you one more thing. Rajiv Gandhi's
assasination made headlines and in fact the entire first page occupied this
news. Rajiv was not PM then. But the death of com S.A.Dange was given
a small column only. Comrade passed away on the same day.

 

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

Thank you Ranganathan. It is not the behaviour of the Media alone which is surprising. It is the behaviour of the people. Millions of Indians who are computer engineers and who have come up in life because of computer education.

Most of the computer servers run on Unix. And Linux which is a derivative of Unix is the other most popular server software. Unix has been the backbone of the internet. And if you see the job advertisements for computer personnel you will see how knowledge of C language is essential.

You can not pass any qualification in computer science without learning C language.

That being the case it is shocking and shameful that not one Indian computer engineer thought it fit to express sorrow at the death of Dennis Richie who made all these possible.

And look at the outpour of praise for Steve Jobs.

I condemn this disgusting behaviour of the Computer personnel of India.

And we talk about Acharyas, Gurus and what not. Is that only in religion? Do you not remember your teachers? India is well on its way of becoming the most corrupt state in the world. No wonder.

Kasethan kadavulada!

காசேதான் கடவுளடா !!

Most of the members of this forum have sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and friends who are in the computer field. Please ask them whether they have heard of Dennis Richie? Or about his death? How they feel about it?

Supreme indifference would be the answer.

I am not a computer engineer. I am only a computer geek. I learnt and qualified in programming as a hobby. Never earned any money out of it. But having learnt the C language and Unix I feel grateful to Dennis Richie who was a true Brahmin. He acquired knowledge and passed it on for humanity to benefit. That is the sign of the true Brahmin.

 

[N.R.Ranganathan]

Sir,

You are quite right in your observation. Even the professionals have
not bothered about the demise of the fatherly figure of the industry.
But, I doubt whether they really know about Dennis ritchie. Even
assuming that they do know about him, they have failed to pay respects
to the ஆசார்யாள் . It is a pity.

 

[samarapungavan]

good one Shri Nachi.

Ritchie's book on "C programming" is a classical book. He along with Pike did contribute immensely to the UNIX&C world @Bell labs. Unix used to be defacto standard for OSs for decades and even now Linux continues the legacy in the opensource world.