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If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

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
Putting
Developers
Computer
Removing
Funny
Removal
Process
Programmers
Must
Bugs
Programming
Software
Code
Debugging

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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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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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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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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 computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
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Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.
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Experience does by no means automatically leads to wisdom and understanding.
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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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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There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.
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Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.
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The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity.
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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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Probably I am very naive, but I also think I prefer to remain so, at least for the time being and perhaps for the rest of my life.
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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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A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.
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The prisoner falls in love with his chains.
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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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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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