SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Dennis Ritchie, a pioneer in computer programming, is dead at age 70, according to his longtime employer.
Ritchie created the popular C programming language and helped create the Unix operating software. He died a month after his birthday, according to his biography on a webpage of Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs. Ritchie joined Bell Labs in the late 1960s.
The company confirmed his death to The Associated Press but would not disclose the cause of death or when Ritchie died. A spokeswoman said the company was trying to contact his family.
