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I was sad with Steve Jobs died. He was instrumental in bringing computers (of various kinds) to the people. His brand of genius was needed to bring computers out of the land of "nerds" and into the land of ordinary folks.
However, Dennis Ritchie, and a few people like him, were instrumental in making computers accessible, period. Bell Labs, Xerox Park, and a couple of other research centers really brought the technology of computers and computer programming up from the depths of magical boxes to "understandable technology" that ordinary people could understand and extend.
The UNIX operating system (The father of Microsoft DOS/Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, BSD, and others) and C programming language were sired by Ritchie and his colleagues. And even though that was then and this is now, it feels like something important and necessary has just ended.
And it makes me feel old and sad.
However, Dennis Ritchie, and a few people like him, were instrumental in making computers accessible, period. Bell Labs, Xerox Park, and a couple of other research centers really brought the technology of computers and computer programming up from the depths of magical boxes to "understandable technology" that ordinary people could understand and extend.
The UNIX operating system (The father of Microsoft DOS/Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, BSD, and others) and C programming language were sired by Ritchie and his colleagues. And even though that was then and this is now, it feels like something important and necessary has just ended.
And it makes me feel old and sad.