Dennis Ritchie famous quotes

UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Simple #Simplicity #Genius

C++ and Java, say, are presumably growing faster than plain C, but I bet C will still be around.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Growing #Java #Faster

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Quirky #Computer #Enormous

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Writing #Way #Language

My work was fairly theoretical. It was in recursive function theory. And in particular, hierarchies of functions in terms of computational complexity. I got involved in real computers and programming mainly by being - well, I was interested even as I came to graduate school.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Real #School #Hierarchy

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

#Writing #People #Design

I've done a reasonable amount of travelling, which I enjoyed, but not for too long at a time.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Journey #Long #Done

... with proper design, the features come cheaply. This approach is arduous, but continues to succeed.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Design #Succeed #Software

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

#Fate #Definitions #Matter

Any editing, software work, and mail is done in this exported Plan 9
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Editing #Done #Mail

The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected...
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Numbers #Unix #Expected

I'm not a person who particularly had heros when growing up.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Growing Up #Hero #Growing

For infrastructure technology, C will be hard to displace.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Technology #Infrastructure

A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Language #Computer #Program

Unix is simple and coherent, but it takes a genius (or at any rate, a programmer) to understand and appreciate the simplicity..
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Simple #Appreciate #Simplicity

Twenty percent of all input forms filled out by people contain bad data.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Data #People #Twenties

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

#Thinking #Giving #Advice

C was already implemented on several quite different machines and OSs, Unix was already being distributed on the PDP-11, but the portability of the whole system was new
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Different #Machines #Unix

Oh, I've seen copies [of Linux Journal] around the terminal room at The Labs.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Labs #Rooms #Linux

A new release of Plan 9 happened in June, and at about the same time a new release of the Inferno system, which began here, was announced by Vita Nuova.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#June #Inferno #Release

Sometimes when you fill a vacuum, it still sucks.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Vacuums #Sometimes #Stills

C is peculiar in a lot of ways, but it, like many other successful things, has a certain unity of approach that stems from development in a small group
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Successful #Unity #Groups

Pretty much everything on the web uses those two things: C and UNIX,
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Two #Use #Unix

The notion of a record is an obsolete remnant of the days of the 80-column card.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Humorous #Cards #Records

Unix has retarded OS research by 10 years and linux has retarded it by 20.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Years #Research #Linux

It seems certain that much of the success of Unix follows from the readability, modifiability, and portability of its software.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Unix #Certain #Software

I'm just an observer of Java, and where Microsoft wants to go with C# is too early to tell.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Microsoft #Java #Want

I fix things now and then, more often tweak HTML and make scripts to do things.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Html #Scripts #Now And Then

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

#Aggravation #Javascript #Kind

Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#Careers #Influence #Persons

A program designed for inputs from people is usually stressed beyond breaking point by computer-generated inputs.
-- Dennis Ritchie

#People #Point Break #Stressed