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Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.

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
Idea
Originated
Ideas
Exceptionally
Oriented
Programming
California
Object
Objects
Learning

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The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
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Much of the excitement we get out of our work is that we don't really know what we are doing.
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There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.
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If in physics there's something you don't understand, you can always hide behind the uncharted depths of nature. You can always blame God. You didn't make it so complex yourself. But if your program doesn't work, there is no one to hide behind. You cannot hide behind an obstinate nature. If it doesn't work, you've messed up.
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It used to be the program's purpose to instruct our computers it became the computer's purpose to execute our programs.
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The effort of using machines to mimic the human mind has always struck me as rather silly. I would rather use them to mimic something better.
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Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
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Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.
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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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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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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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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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I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself Dijkstra would not have liked this, well, that would be enough immortality for me.
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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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It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs.
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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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Beauty is our business.
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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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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.
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