Linked by Eugenia Loli on Thu 13th Oct 2011 00:28 UTC
Twitter is currently buzzing about the death of Dennis Ritchie, the visionary creator of UNIX and C, among other things. We hope it's just a false rumor. Story developing, we will be updating. Update: Unfortunately, it seems to be confirmed. Rob Pike, co-creator of the Plan 9 and Inferno OSes, who has worked with Ritchie in the past, and he's currently working for Google's GO language, posted this.
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Member since:2011-07-16
RE[3]: horrible to hear
by yoshi314@gmail.com on Thu 13th Oct 2011 04:28
in reply to "RE[2]: horrible to hear"
Member since:2009-12-14
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm not quite sure why it would "completely dwarf, in importance and significance, the story about Steve Jobs" (emphasis mine)
The momentum of stories about people, the significance attributed to them, depends largely on how much their subjects are visible to the public - which is clearly much more for Steve Jobs than it is for Dennis Ritchie.
And as for importance, also "UNIX + C is /big/" - well, it absolutely is, but... it's not like it depends in any way on the work, on the continuing existence of its creators at this point; it hasn't for a long time. More generally: people die, with males at ~70 having rather large probability of that, per unit of time.
It's sad if it's true, and we should remember his accomplishments (always, not only on such occasions; if "only" because they point out the conditions of fruitful environments, realizing which should be useful in shaping the future). But... well, too bad I'll probably be long dead before people get some perspective about the dead 
(especially considering how humans seem to succumb more into "grief porn", lately http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourning_sickness )
Edited 2011-10-13 01:40 UTC
Member since:2005-12-25
Member since:2009-08-05
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Let's be very clear that _if_ this were true, this would completely dwarf, in importance and significance, the story about Steve Jobs... UNIX + C is /big/.