> The composition of programs through pipes remains a brilliant idea, and an extremely effective way to get a job done
Except pipes were already present in another operating systems at the time, http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/hist.html
> C is still a remarkably popular programming language, and it has proven surprisingly hard to invent a new language that's better than C in every respect.
In 70's already had a few system programming languages better than C in every respect, safety, modularization, thread support, low level programming, you name it.
C's widespread into the industry is a consequence of UNIX adoption by the industry.
The composition of programs through pipes remains a brilliant idea, and an extremely effective way to get a job done. I've lost track of the number of times I've heard a new programming tool described as "It's like Unix pipes for..."
C is still a remarkably popular programming language, and it has proven surprisingly hard to invent a new language that's better than C in every respect.
Many people could benefit from the ability to connect multiple programs in the shell to get a job done, even if they're not programmers.
It's hard for me to think of any computer scientists whose work remains as relevant today as the people in this video.