

Dennis Ritchie, Trailblazer in Digital Era, Dies at 70 - nydev
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/technology/dennis-ritchie-programming-trailblazer-dies-at-70.html?_r=1&hp

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kleiba
When I was growing up and first read about computers back in the 80's I was
always a bit puzzled by descriptions of programming languages along the lines
of "a shorthand of words, numbers and punctuation" - for someone who knows
what a programming language is, this is just ridiculous; for someone who
doesn't, this does not help.

Our society has changed rapidly in the last 10 to 15 years, technology has
made its way to the middle with smartphones, tablets, etc. being ubiquitous,
and yet I have to read the same utter nonsense in mainstream newspapers each
time there is an article mildly related to computer technology.

"Dennis M. Ritchie, who helped shape the modern digital era by _creating
software tools that power things as diverse as search engines like Google and
smartphones_ "

Oh, please... seriously? :-(

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davedx
I thought it was a great article to be honest. It laid out clearly in layman's
terms what he contributed to the world, their impact, and his legacy. It also
gave us a brief but non-intrusive outline of his family situation, which most
of the technical bloggers ignored.

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kleiba
Fair enough. I didn't mean to criticize the article as a whole, just certain
phrases, or rather a certain style, that I (personally) find annoying. Besides
that I liked the article, too.

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norswap
Does anyone know what he was working on during his last years at Bell Labs ?

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cppsnob
Prediction: A BSD fan is going to go bonkers over a particular line in this
article.

