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Edsger Dijkstra Biography

Edsger Dijkstra

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Dutch: [ˈɛtsxər ˈʋibə ˈdɛikstra] ( listen); 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch systems scientist, programmer, software engineer, science essayist, and early pioneer in computing science. He held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until his retirement in 1999. A theoretical physicist by training, Dijkstra worked as a programmer at the Mathematisch Centrum (Amsterdam) from 1952 to 1962. He was a professor of mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology (1962–1984) and a research fellow at the Burroughs Corporation (1973–1984).

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Edsger Dijkstra Quotes

I now have had my foggy crystal ball for quite a long time. Its predictions are invariably gloomy and usually correct, but I am quite used to that and they won't keep me from giving you a few suggestions, even if it is merely an exercise in futility whose only effect is to make you feel guilty.

Exercise, Giving, Long, Merely, Time, Usually

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.

Computer, Faced, Machines, Million, Powerful, Problem

The prisoner falls in love with his chains.

Chains, Fall, Falling In Love, Love, Prisoner

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as 'lines produced' but as 'lines spent. '

Learning, Lines, Regard, Spent, Wish

The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.

Abstraction, Activity, Exploitation, Powers, Programmers, Vital

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).

Analysts, Beard, Hands, Sandals, Technology, Two

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.

Crisis, Engineering, Formal, Long, People

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

Belongs, Disease, Humorous, Problem, Set, Solution

When building sand castles on the beach, we can ignore the waves but should watch the tide.

Beach, Castles, Ignore, Watch, Watches, Waves

We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers.

Appreciation, Humble, Jobs, Modest, Task

We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!

Advice, Giving, People, Younger

… what society overwhelmingly asks for is snake oil. Of course, the snake oil has the most impressive names — otherwise you would be selling nothing — like “Structured Analysis and Design”, “Software Engineering”, “Maturity Models”, “Management Information Systems”, “Integrated Project Support Environments” “Object Orientation” and “Business Process Re-engineering”.

Maturity, Names, Object, Snakes, Systems

Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.

Learning, Oneself, Perfecting, Unlearning

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.

May, Mounting, People, Seen, Suspect, Teamwork

Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatical about [the goto statement]. I have the uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming could be solved by a single trick, by a simple form of coding discipline!

Believe, Fall, Please, Simple, Single, Uncomfortable

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.

Challenge, Challenges, Computers, Culture, History, Intellectual

. . . 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.

Come, Hard, Hard Work, Opportunity, Simple

The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.

Computers, Like, Swim, Technology, Think, Thinking

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.

Four, Half Time, People, Production, Speed

Write a paper promising salvation, make it a structured something or a virtual something, or abstract, distributed or higher-order or applicative and you can almost be certain of having started a new cult.

Abstract, Make, Order, Paper, Writing

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