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Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!

Edsger Dijkstra

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Edsger Dijkstra
Age: 72 †
Born: 1930
Born: May 11
Died: 2002
Died: August 5
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Mathematician
Physicist
Scientist
University Teacher
R'dam
Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
Dijkstra
EWD
E.W. Dijkstra
Absence
Presence
Program
Show
Shows
Used
Bugs
Never
Testing
Programming

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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, biology is about microscopes or chemistry is about beakers and test tubes. Science is not about tools. It is about how we use them, and what we find out when we do.
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Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
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There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.
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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
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John von Neumann draws attention to what seemed to him a contrast. He remarked that for simple mechanisms, it is often easier to describe how they work than what they do, while for more complicated mechanisms, it is usually the other way around.
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The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity.
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It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs.
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The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
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It is a mistake to think that programmers wares are programs. Programmers have to produce trustworthy solutions and present it in the form of cogent arguments. Programs source code is just the accompanying material to which these arguments are to be applied to.
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Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.
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Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
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Production speed is severely slowed down if one works with half-time people who have other obligations as well. This is at least a factor of four probably it is worse.
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If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.
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FORTRAN, the infantile disorder, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.
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The problems of the real world are primarily those you are left with when you refuse to apply their effective solutions.
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Industry suffers from the managerial dogma that for the sake of stability and continuity, the company should be independent of the competence of individual employees.
Edsger Dijkstra