Dennis MacAlister Ritchie
1941 9 9 – 2011 10 8

Great hero.

Q > The same way many children want to be Superman, you are the idol of many C programmers and UNIX fans (among others) over the globe. How does it feel being adored by thousand of UNIX and C programmers? It's completely impossible to imagine ourselves today without UNIX nor C. When you created C and began to work on UNIX, did you expect it would be 'THE FUTURE' of Computer Science?

A > These two questions are much the same, and ones that are often asked. Obviously the rewards and appreciation that I and my colleagues have received are very pleasant, and we do feel that we have helped create something of real value. But no, we did not really expect that this would be "the future" or even anticipate the eventual influence of the work. It was taken up in the spirit of "let's build something useful" and in the meantime do the work needed to help others take part. It's important to keep in mind that although the whole Unix and C or C++ segment is significant, the world of computer science and technology and real products is much larger.

Q > Recently there is a great deal of concern with the approaching year 2000 and the potential for a melt down of the Internet due to the infamous Y2K bug. Do you believe there is any foundation in the apocalyptic predictions made by some experts?

A > No intelligent comment on this, really. I will not be flying at 23:59 31 December 1999, but since I have not been near an airplane at New Year at any time in my life, this fact probably has little to do with Y2K.
_ http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/July1999/article79.html#lfindex1

He spoke to me once, c.19 years ago, in New Jersey.
He said, "Zero".
_ http://lwn.net/Articles/462895/