Dennis Ritchie, RIP

Thu Oct 13 13:32:16 PDT 2011

I've been informed in various ways that Dennis Ritchie has died.

Particularly since we, as (former, or perhaps "no longer professional,"
in my case) sysadmins, we have reason to appreciate the value of
infrastructure, we can appreciate the value of someone who contributed
so significantly to the fundamental tools with which our environments
have been built.

I'm a bit pleased that on one occasion, I actually had the presence of
mind to thank him -- he & I were the sole occupants of an elevator car
at a USENIX in San Diego.

I also recall that after one of Kirk's BSD/CSRG history talks at USENIX
(I think this one was in Monterey), Dennis pointed out that when he &
his colleagues at Bell Labs were working on UNIX, they did so with the
intent to share it.

The world's a better place for his contributions, IMO.

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
Depriving a girl or boy of an opportunity for education is evil.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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