I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this," well, that would be enough immortality for me. Edsger Dijkstra More Quotes by Edsger Dijkstra More Quotes From Edsger Dijkstra 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. Edsger Dijkstra trying long world So-called "natural language" is wonderful for the purposes it was created for, such as to be rude in, to tell jokes in, to cheat or to make love in (and Theorists of Literary Criticism can even be content-free in it), but it is hopelessly inadequate when we have to deal unambiguously with situations of great intricacy, situations which unavoidably arise in such activities as legislation, arbitration, mathematics or programming. Edsger Dijkstra rude making-love criticism If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind. Edsger Dijkstra mind writing discovery Why has elegance found so little following? That is the reality of it. Elegance has the disadvantage, if that's what it is, that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. Edsger Dijkstra appreciate hard-work reality APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums. Edsger Dijkstra perfection mistake past The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings. Edsger Dijkstra discerning ability quality Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes. Edsger Dijkstra astronomy telescopes computer A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits. Edsger Dijkstra tools profound thinking Beauty is our business. Edsger Dijkstra programming In the software business there are many enterprises for which it is not clear that science can help them; that science should try is not clear either. Edsger Dijkstra should helping trying 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. Edsger Dijkstra intellectual challenges culture Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code. Edsger Dijkstra progress learning thinking When I came back from Munich, it was September, and I was Professor of Mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Later I learned that I had been the Department's third choice, after two numerical analysts had turned the invitation down; the decision to invite me had not been an easy one, on the one hand because I had not really studied mathematics, and on the other hand because of my sandals, my beard and my "arrogance" (whatever that may be). Edsger Dijkstra technology two hands In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote "teamwork." For its anti-individualistic streak, such a drive is of course highly suspect; some people may not be so sensitive to it, but having seen the Hitlerjugend in action suffices for the rest of your life to be very wary of "team spirit." Very. Edsger Dijkstra teamwork may people The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don't master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus. Edsger Dijkstra engineering long people 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. Edsger Dijkstra simplicity appreciate hard-work 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 use views impossible ...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very encouraging, because in all examples that come to mind the simple and elegant systems tend to be easier and faster to design and get right, more efficient in execution, and much more reliable than the more contrived contraptions that have to be debugged into some degree of acceptability....Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated. Edsger Dijkstra hard-work simple opportunity 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. Edsger Dijkstra programming students impossible The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity. Edsger Dijkstra programming complexity art
