There\u2019s a substantial body of lore associated with Dennis Ritchie and his work. One of the minor stories involves his PhD or lack of it. The most common story is that Harvard refused to award Ritchie his degree because Ritchie objected to paying a thesis binding fee. I\u2019ve always accepted that story but it never made sense to me. Having gone through the process and pain of writing a PhD thesis myself, I can\u2019t imagine giving up the prize over a triviality. But, of course, Ritchie was unique in many ways.<\/p>\n
That story\u2014right or wrong\u2014is the least of the mysteries around his thesis. A recent paper by Brailsford, Kernighan, and William A. Ritchie examines the mystery of how Ritchie \u201ctypeset\u201d his thesis<\/a>. The scare quotes on typeset<\/i> are because this was in 1968 and the only realistic way producing hard copy for a thesis was with a typewriter. But the extant copies of the thesis, which was highly<\/i> mathematical, has aspects which seem impossible to produce with a typewriter. It is in any event a tribute to Ritchie\u2019s attention to detail.<\/p>\n Brailsford, of course, has a video about the mystery<\/a> but to really understand what an astounding feat accomplishing the typesetting was, you need to read the paper. Note, especially, how Ritchie centered the Roman numerals on his lists. Brailsford and Kernighan are experts on this sort of thing and even they can\u2019t figure it out.<\/p>\n William Ritchie is Dennis\u2019s brother and has a website on the mysteries of his brother\u2019s thesis<\/a>. It\u2019s also worth looking at.<\/p>\n To really understand what\u2019s going on and why the physical presentation of the thesis is so astounding, you definitely should read the paper. It\u2019s 10 pages but very interesting. The paper and the mysteries it examines tickles the intersection of several of my interests and I really enjoyed it. If you\u2019re interested in this sort of thing, perhaps you will too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a substantial body of lore associated with Dennis Ritchie and his work. One of the minor stories involves his PhD or lack of it. The most common story is that Harvard refused to award Ritchie his degree because Ritchie … Continue reading