C语言之父Dennis Ritchie访谈：当年错失互联网大机遇.pdfVIP

C 语言之父Dennis Ritchie 访谈：当年错失互联网大机遇 Inventing Unix An interview with Dennis Ritchie By SAMUEL K. MOORE, STEVEN CHERRY / MAY 2011 Photo: Bell Labs 26 May 2011—Back in January, when the Japan Prize Foundation announced its 2011 awards, Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson were recognized for the development of Unix, and Tadamitsu Kishimoto and Toshio Hirano were honored for the discovery of interleukin-6. The awards ceremony is normally held in Japan, but on 17 March, the foundation announced that the event would be moved to the United States because of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The awards were held on 19 May at the Bell Labs headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J. Ritchie and Thompson developed Unix while working at that lab, which is now part of the French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent. Thompson is now a distinguished engineer at Google; Ritchie is still affiliated with Bell Labs with the title Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Emeritus. Besides his role in the development of Unix, Ritchie also invented the C programming language. IEEE Spectrum Senior News Editor Samuel K. Moore attended the ceremony and took the opportunity to speak with Ritchie. IEEE Spectrum: Unix and C are both your babies. Which is your favorite? Dennis Ritchie: Well, C has certainly been more lucrative. The book [The C Programming Language, by Ritchie and Brian Kernighan] still generates royalties. Unix is bigger, but C is still used. And it is also more specifically my creation in the sense that it’s descended from a language that Ken did but changed quite a bit, between B and C. Those changes are essentially mine, although I talked to lots of people. With Unix, lots of people contributed. IEEE Spectrum: You are quoted as saying that C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success. Is there anything you would have done differently? Dennis Ritchie: There are lots of little things—I don’t even want