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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
Solution
Humorous
Solutions
Disease
Problem
Fatal
Belongs

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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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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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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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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
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In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.
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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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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
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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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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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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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How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity - in short: what mathematicians call elegance - are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
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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.
Edsger Dijkstra
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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.
Edsger Dijkstra
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Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
Edsger Dijkstra
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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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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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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.
Edsger Dijkstra
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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