include <RIP.h>

Today I learned that Dennis Ritchie, another person who created the technology that has greatly influenced my life, has died:

Ritchie is credited with creating the programming language C, one of the most widely used and influential languages today. He was also one of the creators of operating system UNIX, whose variants -- most notably Linux and OS X -- are also widely used today.

I've been using and taking care of Unix systems since 1990, and was using computer programs written in C long before that.  It's the technology that I use to make my living, and I don't think that's going to change for a very long time.  Yes, there are a lot of newer languages and OS's out there, but almost all of them are either based on something that Ritchie created or borrow concepts from his work.  There's something comforting and home-like about getting into a command shell on a Unix box, be it Solaris, HPUX, AIX, or Linux.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ritchie.  An entire generation of geeks owes a lot to you.

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main (void)
{
    printf("Hello, world!\n");
    return 0;
}