Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist. A theoretical physicist by training, he worked as a programmer at the Mathematisch Centrumfrom 1952 to 1962. He was a professor of mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technologyand a research fellow at the Burroughs Corporation. He held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until 1999, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1999...
serious ridiculous problem
Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
technology people today
Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
technology hands two
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).
challenges intellectual culture
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.
trying helping should
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.
rude making-love criticism
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.
long trying adequate
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.
omission challenges would-be
Some consider the puzzles that are created by their omissions as spicy challenges, without which their texts would be boring; others shun clarity lest their work is considered trivial.
writing discovery mind
If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.
telescopes computer astronomy
Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes.
thinking profound tools
A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.
resources
Brainpower is by far our scarcest resource.
falling-in-love fall chains
The prisoner falls in love with his chains.
regeneration programmers
Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration.