Rupert Goodwins, for ZDNet UK:

While the introduction of Intel’s 4004 microprocessor in 1971 is widely regarded as a key moment in modern computing, the contemporaneous birth of the C programming language is less well known. Yet the creation of C has as much claim, if not more, to be the true seminal moment of IT as we know it; it sits at the heart of programming — and in the hearts of programmers — as the quintessential expression of coding elegance, power, simplicity and portability.Its inventor, Dennis Ritchie, whose death after a long illness was reported on Wednesday and confirmed on Thursday by Bell Labs, similarly embodied a unique yet admirable approach to systems design: a man with a lifelong focus on making software that satisfied the intellect while freeing programmers to create their dreams.

Ritchie developed Unix with Kenneth Thompson at Bell Labs in the early 1970s, and then developed C with Brian Kerninghan to make it easier for programmers to write code that would work on different platforms.

It’s not hyperbole to say that without Ritchie’s work, there’d be no OS X or iOS today, no Linux or Android either, no C++…truly a giant in his field.