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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: Findecanor on Thu, 13 October 2011, 08:02:18

Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Findecanor on Thu, 13 October 2011, 08:02:18
I just saw on slashdot that Dennis Ritchie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie), famous as the co-creator of both the first Unix system and of the C programming language (The "R" in "K&R") has passed away after a long illness.

He truly was one of the greatest.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: itlnstln on Thu, 13 October 2011, 08:15:16
Did he invent the iPad?


(Just kidding. Ritchie's achievements were far greater).
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: insilica on Thu, 13 October 2011, 08:39:57
Quote from: itlnstln;430064
Did he invent the iPad?


(Just kidding. Ritchie's achievements were far greater).


Well I agree with this - It wasn't business for Dennis! while with Gates and Jobs it was always about money, control and influence. Never the less without the dynamic duo software would be very expensive today.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Thu, 13 October 2011, 08:54:19
some India journalist would probably say neither of them were great, far from it actually.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: alaricljs on Thu, 13 October 2011, 09:08:42
Actually the fellow had an extremely good point... Steve Jobs technically didn't *DO* much of any of the things he's credited with.  Yes he's responsible for them and caused them to happen.  But he was just another PHB.  The worst thing I can think of him doing is eliminating any charitable actions by Apple.  The best?  Apple products don't impress me, I can't make them do what *I* want... awesome stock performance tho.

On the other hand, all I know of Ritchie is in that little book of his and Kernighan's that I regularly refer to when coding in C.  It's a shame he had to suffer some nasty disease...
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Thu, 13 October 2011, 09:35:08
in my book, if you're CEO, you are great.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: alaricljs on Thu, 13 October 2011, 09:40:47
Thank you very much.  Not that I think what I do has anything to do with greatness... but hey, every little bit counts, right?
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Thu, 13 October 2011, 09:46:35
I'm sure you're doing great things with your mech boards !!!
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: woody on Thu, 13 October 2011, 10:38:45
Quote from: insilica;430077
while with Gates and Jobs it was always about money, control and influence.
Gates dead, too?

RIP, D.R.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Thu, 13 October 2011, 12:37:51
more and more I find that everything is about money control and influence.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 13 October 2011, 13:17:32
Quote from: ripster;430229
Is that why Jobs gave away so many computers to schools and  Gates is trying to cure Malaria?

What have you done for the world lately?

Ditto Dude.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Thu, 13 October 2011, 14:42:15
I gave 25¢ to the cafe girl this morning. I'm in a good mood. :OP
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: itlnstln on Thu, 13 October 2011, 14:51:06
Quote from: Mazora;430347
I gave 25¢ to the cafe girl this morning. I'm in a good mood. :OP

USD?  So you gave her about $20 CAD?
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Ekaros on Fri, 14 October 2011, 03:40:28
A true pioneer, we use his legacy now and likely for decades to come. Need for low-level implementation or server enviroment isn't going anywhere, like over priced touch-sensitive pieces of junk...
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Malphas on Fri, 14 October 2011, 10:46:38
(http://i.imgur.com/76RkJ.png)

As for Gates, c'mon - it's easy to give away money when you're a billionaire and semi-retired, it's not worthy of the overblown praise he receives for it (which I assume is part of his motivation for doing it in the first place, since he makes it so public).  As for Jobs, It's pretty much common knowledge that he's barely given anything to charity in his life, which he's perfectly entitled to do and I'm not criticising him for it, but don't pretend giving away free Macs to schools is an act of benevolence rather than a shrewd business move.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: sordna on Fri, 14 October 2011, 11:25:26
From Wired: Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On (http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/thedennisritchieeffect/)
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Lanx on Fri, 14 October 2011, 11:38:20
Quote from: Malphas;431020
As for Gates, c'mon - it's easy to give away money when you're a billionaire and semi-retired, it's not worthy of the overblown praise he receives for it (which I assume is part of his motivation for doing it in the first place, since he makes it so public).
Gates had to step down from being CEO in order to be co-ceo (or whatever the head guy is) of his foundation (bill and melinda gates foundation) cuz he said he wouldn't be able to do both half assed, if he was going to be philanthropic, he would give it his all. I'm not a gates fanboi, but just watching his TED talks, you can see how he puts his cut-throatness towards philanthropy.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Fuzzy Dunlop on Fri, 14 October 2011, 12:52:41
I don't know what's sadder – that Dennis Ritchie died, or that fellow Geek Hackers are using the occasion as an excuse to throw rocks at the memory of Steve Jobs?
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Fri, 14 October 2011, 13:04:47
Quote from: itlnstln;430356
USD?  So you gave her about $20 CAD?


I gave her $CAD 0.25, or $0.24 !
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Malphas on Fri, 14 October 2011, 13:32:57
Quote from: Lanx;431056
Gates had to step down from being CEO in order to be co-ceo (or whatever the head guy is) of his foundation (bill and melinda gates foundation) cuz he said he wouldn't be able to do both half assed, if he was going to be philanthropic, he would give it his all. I'm not a gates fanboi, but just watching his TED talks, you can see how he puts his cut-throatness towards philanthropy.
I still don't think his motives are purely altruistic, I think a lot of it is to do with vanity, self-fulfilment and leaving a legacy.  Nothing wrong with that, I just think it's naive when people speak as if he's doing it purely out of the kindness of his heart, despite his less than charitable approach towards other previous aspects of his life, and the fact he's set up a foundation rather than just discreetly donating money to existing charities.  I know one could easily make justifications against those points, about how he wants to see his money put to best use and such, but I still don't buy it.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: insilica on Fri, 14 October 2011, 13:43:11
Quote from: ripster;430229
Is that why Jobs gave away so many computers to schools and  Gates is trying to cure Malaria?

What have you done for the world lately?

well ... I'm not sure I follow - It sounds to me like a super rich guy dropping a dime ... wait I'll be nice ... dollar for a homeless person ... These people have the chance to prevent poverty on continents... do you follow? continents! not some school in some deprived neighborhood- we can have this discussion again in a couple of years when the poverty level increases even further in the USA and the gap between the rich and the poor grows even wider. - what was it these guys make in 1 second again...? sorry ridiculous question!

miss Jobs, probably not, Ritchie probably not, but certainly in terms of contribution to Science: Ritchie!
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Malphas on Fri, 14 October 2011, 13:47:09
I don't mind Ariel, I used it for many years.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Malphas on Fri, 14 October 2011, 13:51:30
It's a tribute to your majesty.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: itlnstln on Fri, 14 October 2011, 14:24:20
Quote from: ripster;431182
Gates created Ariel.

Really?  I thought that was Disney (Steve Jobs, then?).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28629[/ATTACH]
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Mazora on Fri, 14 October 2011, 14:40:55
^geekgirl
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Lanx on Fri, 14 October 2011, 17:02:31
Quote from: Malphas;431163
I still don't think his motives are purely altruistic, I think a lot of it is to do with vanity, self-fulfilment and leaving a legacy.  Nothing wrong with that, I just think it's naive when people speak as if he's doing it purely out of the kindness of his heart, despite his less than charitable approach towards other previous aspects of his life, and the fact he's set up a foundation rather than just discreetly donating money to existing charities.  I know one could easily make justifications against those points, about how he wants to see his money put to best use and such, but I still don't buy it.

what's his less than charitable approach towards other aspects of life? his dominating force of will at Microsoft where he crushed the competition? isn't that... business? as a businessman don't you want the other guy to die?
The reason he set up the bill and melinda gates foundation is so that he can control where the money goes, i mean it must make sense to some other rich ppl such as warren buffet since he's the second biggest donor to the charity.
I mean look at bono's charity, i think that charity raised like 50million or so but like only 50k went to the charity, the rest went to pay salaries of ppl and "awareness".
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Malphas on Fri, 14 October 2011, 17:28:27
Like I said...

Quote from: Malphas;431163
I know one could easily make justifications against those points, about how he wants to see his money put to best use and such, but I still don't buy it.
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Arkonos on Fri, 14 October 2011, 18:17:40
[ATTACH=CONFIG]28648[/ATTACH]
int main()
{
        printf("goodbye, dad\n);
        return 0;
}
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Ekaros on Fri, 14 October 2011, 18:32:43
Quote from: Arkonos;431359
(Attachment) 28648[/ATTACH]
int main()
{
        printf("goodbye, dad\n);
        return 0;
}

Why do they want to write /n in output? ;D
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Arkonos on Fri, 14 October 2011, 19:51:58
Quote from: Ekaros;431368
Why do they want to write /n in output? ;D
Don't aks me, I don't know C, just a little bit of Java. I got the code from here: http://www.golem.de/1110/87024.html
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: sordna on Fri, 14 October 2011, 20:33:27
It's \n guys, the newline character. Ritchie must be turning over in the grave already, seeing /n !!!
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Arkonos on Fri, 14 October 2011, 21:12:34
That much I know (I got it right too), but isn't it rather useless when you only writing one line?
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: sordna on Fri, 14 October 2011, 22:47:40
Quote from: Arkonos;431447
That much I know (I got it right too), but isn't it rather useless when you only writing one line?

Not at all, there are times when you want to write something on the screen, keeping the cursor on the same line to print something else.
Like this:
Please wait... (your program does something time consuming) done!
Title: Dennis Ritchie has passed away
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 15 October 2011, 02:20:44
It's chosen desing, better to have coder sort out it with \n new lines thand mess up with it yourself. Be sure just what is the behaviour. C and c++ has never been about easy, more of not needing to mess up with assembly.