« All Programming Quotes · Edsger Dijkstra's Page
Programming Quotes by Edsger Dijkstra
- If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
- 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…
- A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use.…
- John von Neumann draws attention to what seemed to him a contrast. He remarked that for simple mechanisms, it is often easier to describe how…
- ...our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For…
- We are all shaped by the tools we use, in particular: the formalisms we use shape our thinking habits, for better or for worse, and…
- Yes, I share your concern: how to program well -though a teachable topic- is hardly taught. The situation is similar to that in mathematics, where…
- 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…
- If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start…
- Programming in Basic causes brain damage.
- Beauty is our business.
- 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…
- I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist.
- Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for the average programmer,…
- How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity - in short: what mathematicians call elegance - are not a dispensable luxury, but…
- Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.
- 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…
- The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
- Beware of "the real world". A speaker's apeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions.
- Are you quite sure that all those bells and whistles, all those wonderful facilities of your so called powerful programming languages, belong to the solution…
More Programming Quotes
- The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' — Isaac Asimov
- If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. — Red Adair
- They know enough who know how to learn. — Henry Adams
- I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should… — Ray Bradbury
- Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn't take it away from you. I'm happy to share… — John Carmack
- Violence is interesting. This is a great obstacle to world peace and also to more thoughtful television programming. — P.J. O'Rourke
- Whenever you feel upset, take full responsibility for the emotions that you are experiencing. Get to work as quickly as possible identifying… — Ken Keyes Jr.
- We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor. — Joel Spolsky