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The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.

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
High
Ability
Unavoidably
Discerning
Identifying
Shortcomings
Implies
Quality

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Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.
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LISP has jokingly been described as the most intelligent way to misuse a computer. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavour of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
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If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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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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... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure.
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I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist.
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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
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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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When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming problem. Confronted with machines a million times as powerful, we are faced with a gigantic programming problem.
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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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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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The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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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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In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.
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Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely rewarding.
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The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.
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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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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
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