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So after reading this, is it correct to say that Ritchie basically showed in his thesis the application of the for loop for recursive prime number computation and also its application to computational complexity? AFAIK for loops where already known at the time since they first appeared in ALGOL a little earlier?

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TLDR; Gödel’s incompleteness theorem rests on recursive functions which can be expressed as looping programs, i.e., for() loops. Dennis Ritchie’s PHD thesis, which was never accepted by Harvard because he refused to pay for a bound copy required for submission, demonstrated that the complexity of looping programs is determined by the degree of nesting.

Ritchie did not seem to be driven by status seeking but instead by the urge to build things.

...and perhaps a hint of disdain for the 11th hour fee.

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