The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don't master them,… — Edsger Dijkstra Cases Copy Share Image
It is a mistake to think that programmers wares are programs. Programmers have to produce trustworthy solutions and present it in the… — Edsger Dijkstra Argument Copy Share Image
The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer. — Edsger Dijkstra Abstraction Copy Share Image
If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in… — Edsger Dijkstra Discovery Copy Share Image
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they… — Edsger Dijkstra Exposure Copy Share Image
Much of the excitement we get out of our work is that we don't really know what we are doing. — Edsger Dijkstra Excitement Copy Share Image
Are you quite sure that all those bells and whistles, all those wonderful facilities of your so called powerful programming languages, belong… — Edsger Dijkstra Bells Copy Share Image
Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration. — Edsger Dijkstra Hope Copy Share Image
When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming… — Edsger Dijkstra Computer Copy Share Image
In the software business there are many enterprises for which it is not clear that science can help them; that science should… — Edsger Dijkstra Business Copy Share Image
Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology. — Edsger Dijkstra High technology Copy Share Image
How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity - in short: what mathematicians call elegance - are not a… — Edsger Dijkstra Beauty Copy Share Image
Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well. — Edsger Dijkstra Goodness Copy Share Image
It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs. — Edsger Dijkstra Asks Copy Share Image
Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! — Edsger Dijkstra Absence Copy Share Image
The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities. — Edsger Dijkstra Ability Copy Share Image
FORTRAN, the infantile disorder, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today:… — Edsger Dijkstra Application Copy Share Image
Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am… — Edsger Dijkstra Heirs Copy Share Image
We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it! — Edsger Dijkstra Advice Copy Share Image
...our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively… — Edsger Dijkstra Correspondence Copy Share Image
In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote… — Edsger Dijkstra Action Copy Share Image
The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings. — Edsger Dijkstra Ability Copy Share Image
... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and… — Edsger Dijkstra Credit Copy Share Image
