No doubt, comparisons will be made with Steve Jobs and how much media buzz was created.
iPhone has had a huge impact in my life, but not as much as C. C has defined my thinking. During college, most of the programming I did was in C and K&R was THE reference book I had with me most of the time (I still have it). The precise and succinct way the book is written helped me appreciate the beauty of coding. Every function was defined in clear and concise terms. That not only guided me in my programming adventures, but somehow it also helped me put a different perspective around life and accumulate a no-nonsense attitude of holding myself to much higher standards than anyone else.
From the article linked above:
Colleagues who worked with Mr. Ritchie were struck by his code — meticulous, clean and concise. His writing, according to Mr. Kernighan, was similar. “There was a remarkable precision to his writing,” Mr. Kernighan said, “no extra words, elegant and spare, much like his code.”In essence, this guy created something wonderful and powerful in the world of computing. And I hope his legacy lives on.
-Gaurav Gupta
