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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.

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
Technology
High
Today
People
Celebrated
Essentially
Mathematical
Recognize
Mathematics

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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
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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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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
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If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.
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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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Experience does by no means automatically leads to wisdom and understanding.
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I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.
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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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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
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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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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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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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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.
Edsger Dijkstra
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Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.
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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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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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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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There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.
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