Dennis Ritchie

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie(70), who recently passed away on October 8, 2011, was a US Computer Scientist distinguished for developing the “C” Language and bearing an tempt on other programming Languages and OS (Operating System) such as “Multics” and “UNIX”. Dennis bestowed with the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology 1998. Dennis Ritchie was the chief of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department, he retired from it in the year 2007.

Ritchie was prominent as the originator of “C” Language and he was also a Main Developer of the UNIX OS. He was co-author of the ultimate book on C, The C Programming Language, commonly referred to as K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie). He was also known for his works in ALTRAN, B, and BCPL.

Ritchie’s development of C and his role in the creation of Unix together with Ken Thompson has placed him as an significant trailblazer of contemporary computing. The “C” Programming Language is still extensively utilized even at present in application and OS development, and its impact is seen in most contemporary programming languages. UNIX has also been significant, laying concepts and principles that are now unshakable commandments of computing.