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The use of COBOL cripples the mind its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.

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
Criminals
Cobol
Humorous
Cripples
Computer
Programmers
Therefore
Regarded
Teaching
Offense
Technology
Criminal
Use
Programming
Mind
Witty

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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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The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
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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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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 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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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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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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A convincing demonstration of correctness being impossible as long as the mechanism is regarded as a black box, our only hope lies in not regarding the mechanism as a black box.
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Beauty is our business.
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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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The use of anthropomorphic terminology forces you linguistically to adopt an operational view. And it makes it practically impossible to argue about programs independently of their being executed.
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Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.
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Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
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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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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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Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.
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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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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
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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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I think of the company advertising Thought Processors or the college pretending that learning BASIC suffices or at least helps, whereas the teaching of BASIC should be rated as a criminal offence: it mutilates the mind beyond recovery.
Edsger Dijkstra