Dennis M Ritchie, RIP

[Ron Murawski]

Dennis M Ritchie, RIP


http://boingboing.net/2011/10/12/dennis ... entor.html
"His pointer has been cast to void *; his process has terminated with exit code 0."
- James Grimmelman


First Steve Jobs and now Dennis Ritchie. Sad news. But C is immortal!

[sje]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

[Don]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

Computers first started playing chess in the mid 1950's starting with subsets of the game so it's been about 60 years so far. The programmers must have been adults so we are probably close the point in time where many of the early ones are passing away. In 1957 the first complete chess program was written - that was 1 year after I was born but I don't remember it

In my own mind I think of computer chess as having a modern era that begins in 1970 because that is when tournaments for computers were first organized and that is when I first started getting interested (with some help from an espiode of "mission impossible" where the team used a computer to win a chess match against a Grandmaster.) The first ACM tournament was in 1970 and that is also when computer chess really started getting interesting. The ones competing in that tournament must be up in years as that was over 40 years ago and they would have been adults.

[sedicla]

A very long time ago , I leaned to program in C. From all languagues I learned, Pascal, Basic, VB, Progress, java, assembly, C#, C++, the most entertaining is still C. I always admire Mr Ritchie for bringing us the C language.

printf("RIP C man!!!\n");

[sje]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

In my own mind I think of computer chess as having a modern era that begins in 1970 because that is when tournaments for computers were first organized and that is when I first started getting interested (with some help from an espiode of "mission impossible" where the team used a computer to win a chess match against a Grandmaster.) The first ACM tournament was in 1970 and that is also when computer chess really started getting interesting. The ones competing in that tournament must be up in years as that was over 40 years ago and they would have been adults.

I remember that episode of MI and the funky chess move display made from rotating blocks. I've thought about building one of these for amusement.

I believe that anyone active in computer chess in the 1950s has passed.

Also, perhaps Hans Berliner is older than Richard Greenblatt.

I agree that the first tournaments marked the beginning of the early modern era. This was also about the time that most new programs were written in something other than assembly language and could be run on different machine types, Chess 4.x being a notable exception.

[bob]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

In my own mind I think of computer chess as having a modern era that begins in 1970 because that is when tournaments for computers were first organized and that is when I first started getting interested (with some help from an espiode of "mission impossible" where the team used a computer to win a chess match against a Grandmaster.) The first ACM tournament was in 1970 and that is also when computer chess really started getting interesting. The ones competing in that tournament must be up in years as that was over 40 years ago and they would have been adults.

I remember that episode of MI and the funky chess move display made from rotating blocks. I've thought about building one of these for amusement.

I believe that anyone active in computer chess in the 1950s has passed.

Also, perhaps Hans Berliner is older than Richard Greenblatt.

I agree that the first tournaments marked the beginning of the early modern era. This was also about the time that most new programs were written in something other than assembly language and could be run on different machine types, Chess 4.x being a notable exception.

First, Greenblatt was active well before Berliner. I don't recall exactly, but Berliner's Ph.D. dissertation (Chess as problem solving - the development of a tactics analyzer" was published somewhere in the 74-75 range as I asked for and received a copy of it. I believe Berliner competed in the 1970 ACM event as well with "J. Biit" (Just because it is there). Greenblatt was active 10 years+ prior to that. I have spoken to him several times, but not since about 1981 or so when he was still at MIT and (unknown to many) involved with their CHEOPS chess hardware project. David's been around about that long, serving as TD for the early ACM events...

[Don]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

In my own mind I think of computer chess as having a modern era that begins in 1970 because that is when tournaments for computers were first organized and that is when I first started getting interested (with some help from an espiode of "mission impossible" where the team used a computer to win a chess match against a Grandmaster.) The first ACM tournament was in 1970 and that is also when computer chess really started getting interesting. The ones competing in that tournament must be up in years as that was over 40 years ago and they would have been adults.

I remember that episode of MI and the funky chess move display made from rotating blocks. I've thought about building one of these for amusement.

I believe that anyone active in computer chess in the 1950s has passed.

Also, perhaps Hans Berliner is older than Richard Greenblatt.

I agree that the first tournaments marked the beginning of the early modern era. This was also about the time that most new programs were written in something other than assembly language and could be run on different machine types, Chess 4.x being a notable exception.

First, Greenblatt was active well before Berliner. I don't recall exactly, but Berliner's Ph.D. dissertation (Chess as problem solving - the development of a tactics analyzer" was published somewhere in the 74-75 range as I asked for and received a copy of it. I believe Berliner competed in the 1970 ACM event as well with "J. Biit" (Just because it is there). Greenblatt was active 10 years+ prior to that. I have spoken to him several times, but not since about 1981 or so when he was still at MIT and (unknown to many) involved with their CHEOPS chess hardware project. David's been around about that long, serving as TD for the early ACM events...

Bob,

I think his statement was that he thinks Berliner is older, not that he was active in computer chess earlier. I think he is completely correct on that issue. Berliner was born in 1929 and Greenblatt in 1944. The context of the discussion is about how old the oldest of those guys are right now and who is still alive.

Greenblatt as you mention was involved in computer chess before Berliner, I don't have any reason to doubt what you say about that.

[bob]

Sadly, the same has been seen among the early chess programming pioneers. Who is the eldest of those still with us? Richard Greenblatt, perhaps.

In my own mind I think of computer chess as having a modern era that begins in 1970 because that is when tournaments for computers were first organized and that is when I first started getting interested (with some help from an espiode of "mission impossible" where the team used a computer to win a chess match against a Grandmaster.) The first ACM tournament was in 1970 and that is also when computer chess really started getting interesting. The ones competing in that tournament must be up in years as that was over 40 years ago and they would have been adults.

I remember that episode of MI and the funky chess move display made from rotating blocks. I've thought about building one of these for amusement.

I believe that anyone active in computer chess in the 1950s has passed.

Also, perhaps Hans Berliner is older than Richard Greenblatt.

I agree that the first tournaments marked the beginning of the early modern era. This was also about the time that most new programs were written in something other than assembly language and could be run on different machine types, Chess 4.x being a notable exception.

First, Greenblatt was active well before Berliner. I don't recall exactly, but Berliner's Ph.D. dissertation (Chess as problem solving - the development of a tactics analyzer" was published somewhere in the 74-75 range as I asked for and received a copy of it. I believe Berliner competed in the 1970 ACM event as well with "J. Biit" (Just because it is there). Greenblatt was active 10 years+ prior to that. I have spoken to him several times, but not since about 1981 or so when he was still at MIT and (unknown to many) involved with their CHEOPS chess hardware project. David's been around about that long, serving as TD for the early ACM events...

Bob,

I think his statement was that he thinks Berliner is older, not that he was active in computer chess earlier. I think he is completely correct on that issue. Berliner was born in 1929 and Greenblatt in 1944. The context of the discussion is about how old the oldest of those guys are right now and who is still alive.

Greenblatt as you mention was involved in computer chess before Berliner, I don't have any reason to doubt what you say about that.

OK, if talking about raw age, that would be correct. I interpreted "older" with respect to involvement in computer chess... I was born in 1948 and am now 63. Berliner would be 82 if my math is correct. I never asked Greenblatt about his age, and had always assumed he was significantly older than me. Not just 4 years.

[sje]

I was born in 1948 and am now 63. Berliner would be 82 if my math is correct. I never asked Greenblatt about his age, and had always assumed he was significantly older than me. Not just 4 years.

I guess that Ken Thompson is getting up there as well, and Larry Atkin and David Slate are no spring chickens either. On the east side of the Atlantic, perhaps Mikhail Donskoy is the grand old man still on this side of the grave.

For my modest little self, I'm probably among the last to have started in computer chess while still in the days of punch cards and paper tape.

[sje]

I was born in 1948 and am now 63. Berliner would be 82 if my math is correct. I never asked Greenblatt about his age, and had always assumed he was significantly older than me. Not just 4 years.

I guess that Ken Thompson is getting up there as well, and Larry Atkin and David Slate are no spring chickens either. On the east side of the Atlantic, perhaps Mikhail Donskoy is the grand old man still on this side of the grave.

For my modest little self, I'm probably among the last to have started in computer chess while still in the days of punch cards and paper tape.

I had forgotten: Mikhail Donskoy passed back in January of 2009. RIP

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5153