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The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.

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
Main
Scientist
Complexities
Challenge
Computing
Challenges
Programmers
Making
Programming
Complexity
Confused

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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
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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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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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The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
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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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The prisoner falls in love with his chains.
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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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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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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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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.
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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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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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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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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
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Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.
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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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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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It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
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