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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.

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
Problem
Fatal
Belongs
Solution
Humorous
Solutions
Disease

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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
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Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.
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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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There is very little point in trying to urge the world to mend its ways as long as that world is still convinced that its ways are perfectly adequate.
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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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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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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It is a mistake to think that programmers wares are programs. Programmers have to produce trustworthy solutions and present it in the form of cogent arguments. Programs source code is just the accompanying material to which these arguments are to be applied to.
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The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity.
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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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Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
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Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration.
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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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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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If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
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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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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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I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist.
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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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