Gone too soon. He would have turned 56 today.
I remember
@Null during one stream, in which he struggled to put into words what his "profession" would fall into, if his line of work can be even summarized in a job title, and the closest approximation was "network architect".
The same can be said for Terry. Terry wasn’t “just” a programmer: he was simultaneously a systems architect, an electrical engineer, a language designer, a compiler engineer, a graphics programmer, and an application developer.
Doing all of that alone, in modern times, is nearly unheard of. On top of that, Terry embodied the concept of digital self-reliance: no third-party compilers, no existing kernels, no borrowed drivers. He was working at the same “from scratch” level as the early pioneers in the 1970s, but decades later, when the complexity bar was much, MUCH higher.
Most operating systems today are built by hundreds or thousands of engineers over years... or by dozens of thousands of smelly, unqualified, untalented Indian men.
Terry had more raw, unfiltered talent in his pinky finger than the entire nation of India.
Rest in peace, sweet prince.