---
title: Goodbye, world
date: 2011-10-13
description: Eulogy to Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of C and Unix, written the week of his passing in October 2011.
tags:
- dennis-ritchie
- c-language
- unix
- in-memoriam
---

## My eulogy to Dennis Ritchie

In Mexico you have to go through 6 years of elementary school, 3 for
*secundaria* and another three of *bachillerato* / high-school just before you
can get to the University.

During my three years of high-school I was taught the C language. The first
paragraphs of my textbook on C talked about Unix and some of the doings of
Kernighan, Ritchie and Thompson in the Bell Labs.

Once in the University, one of the first things that I did was to get a hold
of *The C programming language*. I don't remember whether it was in Spanish or
English.

Nowadays I work as a Python programmer on Linux systems. And I enjoy it. So
thanks Dennis, and farewell.

```c
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    printf("Goodbye, world.\n");

    return 0;
}
```