Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie
Ken Thompson (left) with Dennis Ritchie(right)
Born	September 9, 1941 (1941-09-09) (age 66) Bronxville, New York
Fields	Computer Science
Institutions	Lucent Technologies Bell Labs
Known for	ALTRAN B BCPL C Multics Unix
Notable awards	Turing Award National Medal of Technology

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (born September 9, 1941) is an American computer scientist notable for his influence on C and other programming languages, and on operating systems such as Multics and Unix. He received the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology in 1998. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007. Photo of UNIX creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. ... Kenneth Thompson redirects here. ... is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... On September 30, 1996, AT&T spun off its Systems and Technology units (AT&T Technologies, Inc. ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ... W.S. Brown, Bell Labs, ca. ... B was the name of a programming language developed at Bell Labs. ... BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) is a computer programming language that was designed by Martin Richards of the University of Cambridge in 1966; it was originally intended for use in writing compilers for other languages. ... C is a general-purpose, block structured, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ... Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) was an extraordinarily influential early time-sharing operating system. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ... The National Medal of Technology is an honor granted by the President of the United States to inventors and innovators that have made significant contributions to the development of new and important technology. ... is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... C is a general-purpose, block structured, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ... Other listings of programming languages are: Categorical list of programming languages Generational list of programming languages Chronological list of programming languages Note: Esoteric programming languages have been moved to the separate List of esoteric programming languages. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) was an extraordinarily influential early time-sharing operating system. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ... The National Medal of Technology is an honor granted by the President of the United States to inventors and innovators that have made significant contributions to the development of new and important technology. ... On September 30, 1996, AT&T spun off its Systems and Technology units (AT&T Technologies, Inc. ... System software is a generic term referring to any computer software which manages and controls the hardware so that application software can perform a task. ...

Background

Born in Dhalbhumgarh 7th April 1984 Of Soumen Mishra,Born in Bronxville, New York, Ritchie graduated from Harvard with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. In 1967, he began working at the Bell Labs' Computing Sciences Research Center. Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan. ... This article is about the state. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the mathematical techniques typically used in the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ...

C and Unix

Ritchie is best known as the creator of the C programming language and a key developer of the Unix operating system, and as co-author of the definitive book on C, The C Programming Language, commonly referred to as 'K/R' or K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie). The C Programming Language, second edition, by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, widely regarded to be the authoritative reference on C. The C Programming Language (sometimes referred to as K&R) is a well-known computer science book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally... Brian Wilson Kernighan (IPA pronunciation: , the g is silent), (born 1942 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie and contributed greatly to Unix and its school of thought. ...

Ritchie's invention of C and his role in the development of Unix alongside Ken Thompson, has placed him as an important pioneer of modern computing. The C language is still widely used today in application and operating system development and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. Unix has also been influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now well-established precepts of computing. The popular Linux operating system and its tools are descendants of Ritchie's work and the Windows operating systems include Unix compatibility tools and C compilers for developers. Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943), commonly referred to as Ken Thompson (or simply Ken in hacker circles), is an American pioneer of computer science notable for his work with the B programming language and his shepherding the UNIX and Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating systems. ... An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Windows redirects here. ...

Ritchie has said that creating the C language 'looked like a good thing to do' and that anyone else in the same place at the same time would have done the same thing, though Bell Labs colleague Bjarne Stroustrup, developer of C++, said that "if Dennis had decided to spend that decade on esoteric math, Unix would have been stillborn." Bjarne Stroustrup Bjarne Stroustrup (IPA: ) (born December 30, 1950 in Aarhus, Denmark) is a computer scientist and the College of Engineering Chair Professor of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. ... C++ (pronounced ) is a general-purpose programming language. ...

Following the success of Unix, Ritchie continued research into operating systems and programming languages with contributions to the Plan 9 and Inferno operating systems and the Limbo programming language. Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system, primarily used as a research vehicle. ... Inferno is an operating system for creating and supporting distributed services. ... Limbo is a programming language for writing distributed systems and is the language used to write applications for the Inferno operating system. ...

Awards

Thompson, Ritchie and Clinton

=== Turing Award === Dhalbhumgarh In 1983, Ritchie and Ken Thompson,Soumen Mishra jointly received the Turing Award for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system. Ritchie's Turing Award lecture was titled, "Reflections on Software Research." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1086, 240 KB) Summary Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie being awarded the National Medal of Technology from Bill Clinton Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1086, 240 KB) Summary Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie being awarded the National Medal of Technology from Bill Clinton Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... For the Jimi Hendrix song, see 1983. ... Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943), commonly referred to as Ken Thompson (or simply Ken in hacker circles), is an American pioneer of computer science notable for his work with the B programming language and his shepherding the UNIX and Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating systems. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ...

National Medal of Technology

On April 27, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the 1998 National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming language which together have led to enormous advances in computer hardware, software, and networking systems and stimulated growth of an entire industry, thereby enhancing American leadership in the Information Age. ^{[1] [2]} is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events of 2008: (EMILY) Me Lesley and MIley are going to China! This article is about the year. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... The National Medal of Technology is an honor granted by the President of the United States to inventors and innovators that have made significant contributions to the development of new and important technology. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...

Nicknames

Dennis Ritchie is often referred to as "dmr" (his Bell Labs email address) in technical discussion groups.

Writings by Ritchie

• The C Programming Language (1978 with Brian Kernighan; see K&R)
• Unix Programmer's Manual (1971)

The C Programming Language, second edition, by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, widely regarded to be the authoritative reference on C. The C Programming Language (sometimes referred to as K&R) is a well-known computer science book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Brian Wilson Kernighan (IPA pronunciation: , the g is silent), (born 1942 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie and contributed greatly to Unix and its school of thought. ... The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, one of the most read and trusted books on C. The C Programming Language (also known as K&R or the white book) is a famous computer science book which has been influential in the application and development of the C... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar, known as the year of cyclohexanol. ...

Quotes

• "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the demigodic party."^[3]
• "Usenet is a strange place."^[4]
• "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity."^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Ritchie and Thompson [to] Get National Medal of Technology Bell Labs pre-announcement
2. ^ Ritchie and Thompson Receive National Medal of Technology from President Clinton Bell Labs press release
3. ^ Google Groups : net.unix-wizards (1984-03-13).
4. ^ Google Groups : comp.lang.c (2006-08-23).

This article is about the year. ... is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... {| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

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More spoken articles

• Dennis Ritchie's home page
• Transcript of an interview with Dennis Ritchie – Interview by Michael S. Mahoney
• Interview with Dennis M. Ritchie - By Manuel Benet (published in LinuxFocus.org in July 1999)
• Unix.se DMR interview published February 7. 2003
• Ritchie and Thompson Receive National Medal of Technology from President Clinton
• Video - TechNetCast At Bell Labs: Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan (1999-05-14)
• The future according to Dennis Ritchie - LinuxWorld.com 12/4/00
• The Limbo Programming Language by Dennis M. Ritchie