Earlier this week, Dennis Ritchie (dmr) passed away. The
inventor of the C language and key contributor to several
operating systems died after a long illness. Even though he'd
been sick a while, his death came as a surprise. Just a few
months ago, I called his house hoping to set up an interview. I
knew he'd been ill, but his administrator kindly suggested that
he was feeling better and that with a little persistence, I
should be able to work past his shyness and get him on the
phone. There was no hint then that he was so gravely ill. That
shyness, or more correctly, Ritchie's desire to avert attention
despite his contributions to computing, are among the first
things most people who knew him point out. Perhaps for that
reason, he was often the first to poke fun at his creations even
while recognizing their special place in computing: "C is
quirky, flawed, and an enormous success." And, of UNIX, "It is
very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its
simplicity." Behind the modesty, however, hummed a mo