We learned something from the Father of Unix, Dennis.

The Father of Unix, as we all know, is also the father of Dennis Ritchie (Dennis Macalistair Ritchie) who left us last week. However, his impact on computer science and related fields is even more likely to be the same as the computer's father Turing and the recently deceased Steve Jobs (though there will be some controversy, but history tells us this is true).

UNIX is a powerful multi-user, multitasking operating system that supports a variety of processor architectures. Unxi was developed in this way, when Ken Thompson, one of the UNIX developers, developed a game called space travel, and after running on Multics he found the game was slow and expensive, and it cost 75 dollars to run it, At that time 75 dollars is a large number, high prices so that computer enthusiasts can not be interested in it. So Dennis and Thompson worked together to create their paradise for enthusiasts, a place where they could test small programs and share results. He was born in physics and mathematics, but fell in love with computer science at the right time. The most specific and critical idea of the UNIX system they created was "sharing." So what can we learn from the computer giant?

First of all: be interested in what you are doing. Their intention was not to make money, but to save money in the first place, or to put their games in a more money-saving machine.

Second: It is very necessary to jump out of the comfort zone. Dennis was a physicist and a mathematician, but he became the most legendary programmer. Apparently, his professional background helped him develop a C-language or UNIX, as Dennis Ritchie: "Dennis is not afraid to work in a strange field, and if Dennis spends decades in arcane mathematics, maybe Unix will be stillborn."

Third: To have innovative thinking. Dennis was fortunate at Bell Labs, where there was plenty of money and no shortage of employees, and he had the conditions to work with his friends to develop what they wanted, in accordance with his schedule.

Finally: to know how to share. Now many companies like secrecy, their core technology to hide, but this in my opinion is not successful, their ideas and attitudes are not conducive to the development of the company.

It can be said that the most important software in the world today is UNIX, which is important because it is open and available to anyone. Many people may say that openness equals no profit, and it seems to me that people are the most pessimistic and stupid.

Dennis also teaches us that the computer world is not an unfathomable world. Though none of us may have achieved his and Bell's/at&t, especially given their background and the origins of the information age, but it doesn't matter, after all, we've learned a lot from the UNIX source code over the years: "You don't need to know it", just base it on it, To create something more valuable.

Via TC

(Annie for the Lei Feng Network, reproduced please specify!)