WEBVTT - Spotlight on Dennis Ritchie 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.480 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody, 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.680 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:21.800 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.760 Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.520 Hey there, all right. So, uh, we have had a 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.040 series over the course of our podcast on famous people 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.800 in technology, and we hadn't done one of those in 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.720 a while. So, um, Jonathan and I were talking about 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.560 topics to record and we thought, you know, we should 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.960 we should, um, talk about one of the most famous 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.159 or non famous famous people there are in tech. Yeah, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.640 this is a guy who was incredibly influential in technology. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:57.520 In fact, without him, our technological landscape would be totally 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.760 different as far as computer science goes. And this is 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.560 this is of course, the the late great Dennis Ritchie 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.800 Dennis McAllister Ritchie uh and or d M R as 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.759 he was sometimes known. Uh. Tragically, Dennis Richie passed away 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.080 last year and in fact his his body was discovered 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.560 a week after Steve Jobs passed away, and so his 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.600 death was somewhat eclipsed by Steve Jobs's death because Steve 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.560 Jobs had a real cult of personality around him for 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:32.800 various reasons. Right, he sort of embodied personified, if you will, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.520 the corporation of Apple, and so very much was identified 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.440 with that brand. Now, Dennis Ritchie, his contributions, you could argue, 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.600 went far beyond Steve jobs contributions. In fact, a lot 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:51.440 of programmers out there were very much upset that his 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.280 passing did not receive the same sort of coverage that 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.320 Steve Jobs did. But Steve Jobs was a much more 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.440 public figure, and um it was was sort of a 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.600 marketing genius as well, not sort of, he was a 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.360 marketing genius and whereas Dennis Richie was sort of an 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:12.679 architect of of what computers do today, and and it 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.440 was a different two different types of people. Yeah, And 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.000 doing some research on on Dennis Ritchie, I feel like 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.200 that's probably the way he preferred things. He wasn't really 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.080 the kind of of public personality type. He wasn't necessarily 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.839 looking for, uh, the public plaudits, um, although I think 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.320 he probably enjoyed being appreciated by by others um. And 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.880 of course, uh really Steve Jobs and Apple wouldn't be 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.359 where they you know, where they were at the time 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.680 of Steve's passing last year, um without the efforts of 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.239 Dennis Ritchie and and many others who worked with him. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.000 Very true, very true. And as you say, Dennis Ritchie 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.280 was a very private man, so was Steve Jobs. But 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.480 Steve Jobs would also put himself out in front of 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.040 crowds order to talk about products. That's not what Dennis 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.560 Richie did, although he did write one of the most 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.840 famous books and programming, which we will get into. So 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.280 Steve had a public face that's right, very very well put. 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:14.720 And I have to say that before I really dive 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:19.360 into here, I found one article in particular incredibly informative 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.600 and touching really about Dennis Richie. And there are there 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.000 are a lot of articles out there that have been 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.040 written since his passing, but the one in particular that 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.399 I want to mention because a lot of my information 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.120 came from this article was written by cade Mets of Wired, 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.760 and it's called Dennis Ritchie the Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.560 On and it's an excellent read. So I highly recommend 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.800 you go to Wired and check that out before you 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.400 before you turn this podcast off, write that down because 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.400 it's a really good article. Yeah. I think that. Um, 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.280 a lot of the articles that came out immediately following 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.920 Dennis Ritchie's passing had sort of a Steve Jobs connection 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.960 simply because they passed at that time, within a week 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.080 of each other. Yeah, yeah, there there There wasn't a 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.280 connection connection like these guys hung out all the time. 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.320 It wasn't like it wasn't like Jobs was and Ritchie 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.640 all right, Yeah, I think it come back at the 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.760 local coffee shop. No, but I think there there's a 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.760 tie in simply because uh, those two events were uh 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.640 so close together. But um, yeah, let's let's talk about 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:31.120 about Dennis here. He was born September nine in uh 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:34.200 in New York, Bronxville, New York, Yep, yep. And he 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.120 was and he passed away in New Jersey and Berkeley 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.280 Heights on October and October. Yeah, we don't know exactly 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.640 when because his body was found tragically, so we don't 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.880 know exactly the day. His father was Alistair E. Ritchie, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.440 who was a scientist and an authority on switching circuit theory. Yes, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:59.680 and he was an employee with Bell Laboratories. Yes, laboratories. Yes, 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.240 it's funny to me going going towards the traditional there. 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:07.720 His father was Alistair and his middle name was mac alister, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:13.119 which son of Alister. Very well done. I liked that, um, 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.239 and it was one of those just a little trivia 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.280 type facts that you pick up when you're when you're 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.400 researching someone like that. But nicely done, guys. He Uh. 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.560 He was an apt student and he attended Harvard University. 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.520 He graduated with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. And 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.200 then when he decided to go into graduate school, also 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.880 at Harvard, he began to work at the Massachusetts Institute 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.400 of Technology in m T. And he worked in their 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.600 computer center. And as he worked in the computer center, 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.240 he became so interested in computer science he decided that 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.200 was what he wanted to focus in as opposed to 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:49.120 pure mathematics, although the two two fields have a lot 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.960 in common with one another. And this is this is 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:55.400 another illustration of how much, how much of an effect 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.360 that these computer pioneers had UM when he was when 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.200 he had made that decision he wanted to get into 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.520 computer science. It wasn't like he said, oh, I'm going 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.040 to go to UH to Harvard or m I team 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.719 get my computer science degree. There wasn't a computer science 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.840 degree at that time. UM, it's thanks to people like 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.000 these that we have such a strong computer science field. 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.080 And in fact, the work they did end up being 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.080 the syllabus for for for those computer science degrees. I mean, 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.600 like his his work on the on programming is one 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:37.479 of the fundamental UH foundation blocks for learning about programming 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.239 and computer science today. So while he uh is going 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.520 through this graduate work, he ends up getting a PhD 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:50.000 from Harvard. His dissertation was called program Structure and Computational Complexity, 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.599 which was something he really did excel at that became 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.840 a focus of his. While he was there working through this, 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:03.160 he got a a request, a recruitment request from Sandia 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:09.520 National Laboratories. And Sandia National Laboratories was a weapons research 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:14.760 and testing company, and so they were offering him bookoo's 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.240 of cash to be part of their team. But this 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.640 was in the nineteen sixties and Richie kind of had 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:25.200 this philosophy that perhaps a weapons testing facility might not 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.080 be the place he would want to end up in, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.880 and so he turned it down. Although we we just 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.760 mentioned Sandy National Laboratories, a short time ago on a 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:40.920 podcast about supercomputers. So instead he went and joined a 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:45.040 different lab, Bell Labs, same place as Dad had worked, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.680 and he joined in nineteen sixty seven, and uh he 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.240 was first put on a project where he was going 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.600 to be working with a team from m I T 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.040 along with a fellow named and Thompson. Now that's a 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.880 very important name as well. Thompson and Ritchie together have 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.040 done a lot of work and laid that groundwork on 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.520 computer science. They were originally working with this team from 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.640 m I T. Thompson, by the way, also worked for 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.680 Bell Labs. They were working with this team from m 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.720 I T to build a new operating system called Multics 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.640 m U L T I c S. However, halfway through 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.200 the project, funding gets pulled. It. It just decided the 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.080 project wasn't moving fast enough or it wasn't going to 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.800 budget at any rate. For some reason or another, the 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.440 project was was trashed and Richie and Thompson were a 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.840 little put off by this because they wanted to build 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.840 an operating system that would support their programming efforts across 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.800 multiple platforms. And that was a real problem because back 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.360 in these days in the sixties, a lot of these 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.800 computers had proprietary operating systems that worked only upon that computer, 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.480 So the machine then the operating system were married together. 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.600 You didn't find the same operating system across multiple types 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.600 of machines, kind of the way you could argue Apple works, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:13.640 you know, because the Apple os and the hardware are 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.839 so closely aligned. Right right? Um? Now, did you mention 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.840 who had been funding Multics? I did not. That would 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:25.800 be the Advanced Research Projects Agency or a gosh that 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:31.480 names sounds familiar. So since since poltics gets pulled, they 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.439 decided they wanted to continue and try and build their 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.640 own operating system. Now there's something else I wanted to 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.480 mention about multics, though, was it? It was a time 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.800 sharing system, which means that you go and hang out 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.400 there and have a nice vacation. No, it means that 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.920 you have multiple terminals that hook up to a centralized computer, 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.080 and that as you are working on stuff, you get 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.760 time allotted to you to access the computer's processing power. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.400 So when your can on it, that means nobody else 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.680 is well. Although they way these time sharing systems worked 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.800 is that it would switch back and forth so quickly 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.280 as to seem like everyone's working simultaneously. But in truth, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.520 if you were to really divide up the time, very 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.760 specific moments would be allocated to each user depending on 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.200 how many users there are for that particular system. Yeah, 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.160 but it was it was single tasking. UM. And something 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.680 else to note too is that this was in a 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.680 time when UM, the programmer would need to create a 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.280 series of punched cards to to uh to put this 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.319 into the machine. So your programming is done on punched 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.920 cards and then you give it to someone to compile 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:43.920 for you and put into the machine. So once you're 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.600 done writing the program, you hand off the deck of 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.240 cards and go work on something else. And then the 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.839 through the compiling process, you find out whether or not 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.120 your program works exactly. So the so the programmer, Dennis 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.679 Ritchie realized that there are important things going on here. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.280 He wanted to change. He wanted to have more of 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.640 an impact. He wanted to feel like he was more 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.000 engaged with the process. He also felt like, UM, he 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.199 wanted to work with other people collaboratively on the computer system. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.200 UM and UH. You know these were things that influenced 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.679 his and and Ken Thompson's decision making where they wanted 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.040 to do with this next operating system. So Thompson starts 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.040 to work on this, and he starts to build this 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.079 operating system using assembly language. But here's the problem is 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.320 simply language just did not give the full amount of 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.000 control that they needed to build out an operating system 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.800 that could manage all the data across all the different 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.800 parts of this operating system. Because you gotta remember, the 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.800 operating system handles data that's coming from user input, it's 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.000 handling data from the file system, from from any storage 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.400 that is connected to this computer. Uh, it has to 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.720 handle the data that comes out of the processing after 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.560 the CPUs processed it. There's a lot of different moving 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:03.839 pieces here, well virtually moving pieces or pieces that are 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.560 virtual anyway, there are a lot of pieces and so 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.480 and so the problem is that the assembly language was 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.920 not sophisticated enough to do this in an elegant way. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.120 So if the assembly language isn't doing it, what's your solution, Well, 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.000 if you're Dennis Ritchie, your solution is build a new 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:26.640 programming language. Yeah. The uh, the assembly language was so 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.120 close to the kernel, to the operating system that or 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.079 to the UM I'm sorry to the hardware that it 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.439 just made life really difficult and so he what his solution. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.920 Uh didn't take you much farther away, but it was 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.520 far enough away that it made a big difference in 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:46.160 the way you would write at the time that he developed, 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.160 and the language he developed was the C programming language. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.439 At the time that he developed that that was considered 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.880 a high level programming language. Today we would not say that. 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:56.680 We would say it's a much lower level because there 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.480 are higher level programming languages that have been developed since then. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.280 But at the time it was considered a high level 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.360 programming language, meaning that it was a further step out 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.920 from the physical layer of the computer. And it's kind 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.720 of interesting, like first, before he did that, they started 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.160 to think about using four tran to try and create 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.920 the Unix operating system by the way, Unix. By the way, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.120 it was originally spelled un I c S, but because 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.719 we pronounced that Unix, they just replaced the CS with 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.640 an X eventually. Uh, so that's why it's spelled you 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.080 in i x UM anyway, And it was a playoff 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.760 the Multics name. That was what they were working on before. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.000 So they tried to use four trend. Well, four tran 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.920 was as a programming language that was really really well 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:46.760 suited for scientific applications uh, and it was too limited 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.720 for them, so they abandoned using for trend. There were 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.280 a few other options, but they were again meant for 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.240 very specific applications, and they wanted something more general. So 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.240 what what Richie did was he took uh. He looked 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.960 at a programming language that Thompson had developed called the 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:08.200 B programming language B as in boy h, which depending 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.520 upon which theory you're reading, could have been named after 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.200 his wife or a different programming language. Anyway, Richie took 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.240 that and then he thought he got stung on the 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.960 day that he there. You could have been who knows, 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.400 I'll get Thompson on the phone, we'll have a chat. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.800 So Richie he ended up taking looking at the B 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.800 programming language, and then he developed his own programming language 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.360 called C. And again, the only reason that he built 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.960 the C programming language, or at least the original intent, 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:42.840 was just so they could build Unix. And it's kind 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.000 of important to realize that because I think, based upon 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.640 everything I've read, and granted this is all from secondhand information, 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.000 it wasn't something that Dennis Richie wrote himself. It feels 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.760 like he never knew how extensive This language would go 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.760 throughout the computer field. He was doing it for a 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.360 very practical purpose. He needed a different language in order 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.280 to build the operaing system they wanted to have. So 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.880 he never really realized at the time that C programming 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:17.200 language was going to become such a huge, uh fundamental 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.520 part of computer science. If he had, maybe he would 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.800 have felt the pressure a bit more. Well actually, uh, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.920 in a way, he didn't need to feel as pressured. UM. 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.880 It's good maybe that he that he was sort of 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.080 divorced from that. UM. See, he was he was trying 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.800 to use this uh, this old machine that they had 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.600 at Bell Labs. It's a it was a Digital Equipment 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.960 Corporation also known as Deck PDP seven UM and Unix. 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.040 You know, they put Unix on that machine. Or that 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.840 was the point of creating Unix, was to operate this machine, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.840 but also to operate others. UM. And it wasn't long 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.440 after that after they were doing this that they got 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.560 a PDP eleven computer. UM. And the nice thing about 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.320 Unix was it was computer independent, so they would they 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.200 would be able to use Unix on multiple different computers, 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:13.800 not just that one particular machine. So UM, you know, 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.960 they were able to to migrate Unix and run it 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.400 on that other machine and use the programming language C 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.760 to write software for it. Yeah. This this was a 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.760 fairly new idea. Unix was not the first operating system 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.560 that could be used on different machines, but it was 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.080 one of the first. And I'm sorry I didn't go interrupt, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.040 and I was gonna say if you'll remember, we are 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.560 not long ago. A few weeks ago we did a 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.200 podcast about the beginnings of the Internet and one of 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.080 the first challenges, and and and those guys were working 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:50.760 on on these challenges about the same time as Richie 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.880 and Thompson were working on They're trying to solve these problems. Um, 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.200 they had multiple computers in different locations, and they all 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.080 used a different operating system. So you know, these these 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.520 computer pioneers were doing something very important. They've realized that 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.399 this is just a pain in the neck, and you 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.560 have to find ways to get computers on the same 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.040 operating system, running the same programming language, take talking to 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.920 each other in the same protocol in order to get 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.840 them to work more efficiently. Well. And also the idea 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.560 behind this is that for programmers, it makes things way 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.520 easier because otherwise, if you're a programmer and you're going 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.560 into programming, you had to learn how to navigate specific 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.920 operating systems for specific machines, which meant that you might 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:40.359 be an expert on two, maybe or three machines max. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.360 Two three different types machines, but then you get introduced 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.920 to another one and the operating system might be completely 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.200 foreign to you because each one had its own. The 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.960 approach that that Richie and Thompson had meant that the 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.199 same operating system could be found across multiple different machines. 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.879 You could just learn that one, and once you've learned 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.720 that one, you're good to go. You can program for 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.119 all sorts of machines, which was a revolutionary development in 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.040 computer science. You know, it's easy for us to forget 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.920 that now because we're so used to that world, even 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.119 though in some ways the old world is kind of 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.320 coming back, with various manufacturers making very proprietary approaches to 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.600 things so that you can't you know, the methodology used 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.720 to work on one set of devices doesn't work on 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.679 another set. We're starting to see that again now, But 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.440 for a long time, it was this philosophy of let's 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.360 develop something that's going to work across the entire landscape 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.200 of computers. So that way, uh, you know, people can 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:42.320 really concentrate on mastering programming and not have to worry 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.960 about mastering it for just one set of type of 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.760 computational device, whether it's a computer or handheld device, whatever 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.959 it is. So that's sort of the development of Unix, 0:18:55.000 --> 0:19:01.440 and uh it got It's hard to explain the impact 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.560 of this operating system. Part of the reason it had 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:08.160 such a huge impact had to do with the constraints 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.239 that A T and T was under because you had, 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.040 you know, a T and T there the the head 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:19.000 of what Bell Labs was, parent company of Bell Labs. Uh. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.320 They the reason why Unix. One of the reasons why 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.120 Unix worked so well is that it ended up being 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:30.040 distributed across various research facilities and universities. And the reason 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.840 why it was distributed for free is because A T 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.480 and T legally could not sell this operating system. And 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.080 the reason for that is that at the time when 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.240 this was going on, a T and T was a 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.680 telephone monopoly in the United States, and as a telephone 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.800 anyway essentially a monopoly. They don't have to be the 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:52.600 only player to be a monopoly, they have to be 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.800 the only mega major player, and they certainly were, and 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.320 so they were essentially a monopoly in the United States. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.080 And because they were, they had to operate under what 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.920 it's called a consent decree, and that consent decree meant 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.080 that they could not branch into another industry like computers, 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.320 because they already held a monopoly over another industry, so 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.800 they could not by law sell this operating system. So 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.080 instead they distributed it freely to these research facilities and 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.280 universities which uh and they also offered up a license 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:30.959 which allowed these these different institutions to take the operating 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.240 system and tweak it to their own needs. So Unix 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:39.720 ended up propagating across a wide array of educational organizations 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:45.760 and other institutions and became a solid foundation for students 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:48.239 who were interested in programming because now they suddenly had 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.919 access to this operating system platform that they didn't have 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.080 access to before, and it was free, so there was 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.400 no cost to the students or to the universities, and 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:03.040 it meant that the whole field of computer science accelerated 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.920 exponentially because there was suddenly access to two very sophisticated 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.760 tools that there wasn't before, so we started to see 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:16.920 a lot more people going into programming. Eventually, this actually 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:23.200 led to UH Richie writing a book, co writing a book, 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.720 I should say, and that book is the C Programming Language. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.440 But it's frequently referred to as the K and R Book, 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.480 And it's called K and R after the last names 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.680 of the two authors. So Dennis Richie is the R, 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:41.879 the K is Brian Carnigan, and UH. And so if 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.200 you've ever heard anyone or if you are a programmer, 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:45.920 you think of the K and R Book as being 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.959 one of those sacred texts that that everyone values. If 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.119 you've talked to a programmer and you've heard this phrase, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.440 that's what it refers to, is the C programming language. 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.639 I remember um Lennis tor Vaults talked about the K 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.720 and R book like being a big influence on him 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.760 when he was getting into programming. And Uh. It's widely 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.720 praised as a very accessible book on the subject of programming. 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.000 And in part of that, it's because the C programming 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:18.000 language itself is very relatively simple. It's got a very 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.840 simple grammar and syntax and is paired down to just 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:25.920 the bare necessities. Not the song from the jungle Book. 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.880 I didn't sing it. It's going through my head already. 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:33.080 But anyway, it's paired down, so it's very it's it's 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.080 very spare. It's meant to be that way so that 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.600 it doesn't take up a lot of space and everything 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:43.880 runs really smoothly and quickly on a machine. So, uh, 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:49.280 interestingly enough, A T and T releases Unix out right, well, 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.080 years later they were no longer held under the consent decree. 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.240 Turns out A T. T gut a little bit of 0:22:56.280 --> 0:23:00.199 a they had a little breakup with themselves. Breaking up 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.280 is hard to do all over the place. Uh, and 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.280 lots of other companies came out of this whole A 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.440 T and T thing. Well, once that happened, they said, hey, 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:11.520 you know what, we want Unix again. So they started 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:16.200 to try and they tried to Yeah, exactly, they tried 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.800 to re establish their proprietary hold over Unix. As a 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:24.360 result of that, it's sort of helped first of all 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:28.160 unichs to being distributed throughout universities. That that kind of 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.719 started that seed of an idea of open source, this 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.840 idea of code that is created and then distributed freely, 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:39.560 and then people can actually manipulate that code under certain 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:44.000 specific circumstances. And so that's kind of planted that seed. Well, 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.680 once AT and T started try and grab that back, 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.960 that seed really started to blossom. And uh, and that's 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.119 problem more or less what prompted Richard Stallman to create 0:23:55.160 --> 0:24:00.199 the CANOW project. G N you and canows acronyms for 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:04.399 its recursive acronymic stands for the News, not Unix. And 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.560