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Dennis Ritchie quotes
My own computational world is a strange blend of Plan 9, Windows, and Inferno. I very much admire Linux's growth and vigor. Occasionally, people ask me much the same question [about Linux], but posed in a way that seems to expect an answer that shows jealousy or irritation about Linux vs. Unix as delivered and branded by traditional companies. Not at all; I think of both as the continuation of ideas that were started by Ken and me and many others, many years ago.
Dennis Ritchie
UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.
Dennis Ritchie
C++ and Java, say, are presumably growing faster than plain C, but I bet C will still be around.
Dennis Ritchie
At least for the people who send me mail about a new language that they're designing, the general advice is: do it to learn about how to write a compiler.
Dennis Ritchie
I've done a reasonable amount of travelling, which I enjoyed, but not for too long at a time.
Dennis Ritchie
When I read commentary about suggestions for where C should go, I often think back and give thanks that it wasn't developed under the advice of a worldwide crowd.
Dennis Ritchie
Computer science research is different from these more traditional disciplines. Philosophically it differs from the physical sciences because it seeks not to discover, explain, or exploit the natural world, but instead to study the properties of machines of human creation. In this it as analogous to mathematics, and indeed the "science" part of computer science is, for the most part mathematical in spirit. But an inevitable aspect of computer science is the creation of computer programs: objects that, though intangible, are subject to commercial exchange.
Dennis Ritchie
[C has] the power of assembly language and the convenience of ... assembly language.
Dennis Ritchie
Another danger is that commercial pressures of one sort or another will divert the attention of the best thinkers from real innovation to exploitation of the current fad, from prospecting to mining a known lode.
Dennis Ritchie
I think one of the interesting things about the Linux phenomenon is that [Linus] has been able to keep some kind of control over such an amazingly extended development environment. I'm certainly glad that I didn't have to develop C in public, because you get more suggestions than you really want. Being in this nice, small group, you can control that sort of thing. I honestly don't know the dynamics and the details of the Linux kernel project. However, one of the knocks on Linux is that it is undisciplined. But I think probably the fairer observation is that it is amazingly disciplined, compared to what you would expect, given the nature of the endeavor.
Dennis Ritchie
UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity.
Dennis Ritchie
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the demigodic party.
Dennis Ritchie
The greatest danger to good computer science research today may be excessive relevance. Evidence for the worldwide fascination with computers is everywhere, from the articles on the financial, and even the front pages of the newspapers, to the difficulties that even the most prestigious universities experience in finding and keeping faculty in computer science. The best professors, instead of teaching bright students, join start-up companies.
Dennis Ritchie
The working examples of important new systems seem to have come either from entrepreneurial efforts (Visicalc is a good example) or from large companies, like Bell Labs and most especially Xerox, that were much involved with computers and could afford research into them, but did not regard them as their primary business.
Dennis Ritchie
I think the Linux phenomenon is quite delightful, because it draws so strongly on the basis that Unix provided. Linux seems to be the among the healthiest of the direct Unix derivatives, though there are also the various BSD systems as well as the more official offerings from the workstation and mainframe manufacturers.
Dennis Ritchie
I don't really distinguish between Linux and things that are more or less direct descendants of Unix. I think they're all the same at some level. Often, people ask me, "Do you feel jealous about Linux being the big thing." And the answer is no, for the same reason. I think they're the same.
Dennis Ritchie
I'm not a person who particularly had heros when growing up.
Dennis Ritchie
For infrastructure technology, C will be hard to displace.
Dennis Ritchie
I'm just an observer of Java, and where Microsoft wants to go with C# is too early to tell.
Dennis Ritchie
I can't recall any difficulty in making the C language definition completely open - any discussion on the matter tended to mention languages whose inventors tried to keep tight control, and consequent ill fate.
Dennis Ritchie
I fix things now and then, more often tweak HTML and make scripts to do things.
Dennis Ritchie
The kind of programming that C provides will probably remain similar absolutely or slowly decline in usage, but relatively, JavaScript or its variants, or XML, will continue to become more central.
Dennis Ritchie
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