RIP, Dennis Ritchie

From the Times obituary:

The C programming language, a shorthand of words, numbers and punctuation, is still widely used today, and successors like C++ and Java build on the ideas, rules and grammar that Mr. Ritchie designed. The Unix operating system has similarly had a rich and enduring impact. Its free, open-source variant, Linux, powers many of the world’s data centers, like those at Google and Amazon, and its technology serves as the foundation of operating systems, like Apple’s iOS, in consumer computing devices.

Of course, the inevitable comparisons to Jobs, some of them not at all flattering. Edward Tenner makes one such comparison:

This is not to diminish Steve Jobs. I've argued elsewhere that in some ways he was the superior of Thomas Edison. But these lives serve to remind us of the missing slice of Apple: a commitment to basic research -- something that is present to a much greater degree in Microsoft and Google.