From the BBC article:
I thought about this for a bit, and came to the conclusion that Ritchie (along with Kernighan and the rest of the Unix crew) is what allowed Jobs's influence to be as great as it is. OS X, iOS, and every other software product Apple produces is built entirely on the C language and a Unixlike operating system. I'm having trouble expressing my opinion of how critical the OS 9 -> OS X jump was to the success survival of the Macintosh platform, and iOS is built on the same kernel.
In much the same way, Isaac Newton's influence is far greater than Albert Einstein's. Yes, Einstein gave us his theories of relativity, and even helped establish quantum mechanics. But Newton formulated the classical Laws of Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation (which was the first time anyone dared to suggest that celestial bodies were bound by the same laws as things on earth), made huge contributions to the field of optics, and developed Calculus (simultaneously but independently from Leibniz, whose name and notation we use for the field), the mathematical tool on which every physicist and engineer depends.
So I guess my point is, Ritchie and Kernighan (and to a lesser extent the other Unix developers) make up the Isaac Newton of Computer Science. (I don't think Jobs quite counts as Einstein. Maybe the Two Steves together...)
Quote:On Twitter, developer James Grimmelman said: "Ritchie's influence rivals Jobs's; it's just less visible."
I thought about this for a bit, and came to the conclusion that Ritchie (along with Kernighan and the rest of the Unix crew) is what allowed Jobs's influence to be as great as it is. OS X, iOS, and every other software product Apple produces is built entirely on the C language and a Unixlike operating system. I'm having trouble expressing my opinion of how critical the OS 9 -> OS X jump was to the success survival of the Macintosh platform, and iOS is built on the same kernel.
In much the same way, Isaac Newton's influence is far greater than Albert Einstein's. Yes, Einstein gave us his theories of relativity, and even helped establish quantum mechanics. But Newton formulated the classical Laws of Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation (which was the first time anyone dared to suggest that celestial bodies were bound by the same laws as things on earth), made huge contributions to the field of optics, and developed Calculus (simultaneously but independently from Leibniz, whose name and notation we use for the field), the mathematical tool on which every physicist and engineer depends.
So I guess my point is, Ritchie and Kernighan (and to a lesser extent the other Unix developers) make up the Isaac Newton of Computer Science. (I don't think Jobs quite counts as Einstein. Maybe the Two Steves together...)