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UNIX Creators To Receive Pender Award

Posted by simoniker on from the long-ago-and-far-away dept.

jellings writes "Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson will be recipients of this years' Harold Pender Award, given "to an outstanding member of the engineering profession who has achieved distinction by significant contributions to society" by the University Of Pennsylvania School of Engineering. Under the direction of Pender, ENIAC was born, and under Ritchie and Thompson, UNIX was born."

9 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Only now? by Randolpho · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So why haven't they already been awarded years ago?

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    1. Re:Only now? by xenocide2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Probably because the lingering ghosts of Operating Systems past have left the public eye. UNIX wasn't always considered the big-iron behemoth it is today. There was a time when people percieved UNIX in the same way the typical slashdotter views MS Windows today. "The good news is that in 1995 we will have a good operating system and programming language; the bad news is that they will be Unix and C++."

      The legends of UNIX hold that original version was put together hastily (the filesystem was designed overnight), and for the express purposes of playing spacewar. How much of that is true and how much comes from lying MUTLICS sympathists, I'll never know. But only with time has UNIX become something worthwhile. Perhaps the award is for being the first decent example of an iterative development cycle?

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    2. Re:Only now? by AtrN · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They were. Read all about it.

  2. I would expect... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Torvalds, Cox, and Stallman get that similar award.

    After all, the free software was pushed by Torvalds and Cox by providing a free Nix under the gpl that pushes software in an open way.

    And of course, Stallman, for writing Gnu C. No other FOSS comiler existed for C until he made it. And it was used in many unixes, NExT, Linux, *BSD, MacOS 10, and Linux with compilers also for WIndows. I'd say he would qualify for it too.

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    1. Re:I would expect... by anomalous+cohort · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I see your point. Ritchie and Thompson made significant contributions to the Society of Engineering and to telcos but not to general Society (unless you want to count all those telephone switches that ran off of some variation of Unix). It was Torvalds, et. al, that brought Unix to the masses.

      I remember buying Microport Unix for the PC back in the late 80's for $1000. There certainly wasn't going to be a lot of wide adoption at that price.

  3. In other news.... by orthogonal · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, SCO's Darl McBride plans to rush the stage during the presentation, grab the Pender award, and bill UPenn, Dennis Ritchie, and Kenneth Thompson $699 each before running off with the award.

    McBride will then issue a press release claiming that the award was always his, but Ritchie and Thompson copied his citation for the award and scratched his named out, inserting theirs. The press release will explain that the original citation is "double secret", but can be revealed to anyone willing sign an NDA and read it in a Greek font.

    The next morning, McBride will attempt to dump the award on Wall Street for 2000% of its appraised value.

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    1. Re:In other news.... by mugnyte · · Score: 4, Funny

      ..AND sue UofP for their obvious participation in the outlaw OSS movement to discredit SCO's invention: UNIX, and all things command line.

      Actually, they just release PR about the lawsuit, but it never gets filed. As the stock rises, the overseas mansions fill up with hummers and marble and gold. The angry legions approach Utah driving truckloads of evidence to the courthouse. Darl stares down from the steel monolith, smirking. In SCO-issue sunglasses, the admin knocks on his door. "Your helicopter is waiting, Mr McBride."

  4. But when will they be awarded...... by FrostyWheaton · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first annual Mongomery Burns award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence??

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  5. This is perfect timing! by Roofus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've nearly completed my port of Unix to ENIAC! Thus, the circle will be completed.