“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.” IfsGivingFeelsLongUsedEffectsExerciseLong TimeBallsGuiltySuggestionsPredictionsCrystalsFutilityGloomyCrystal Ball Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.” IfsWritingMindProudHabitDiscoveryPublicationScientific Discovery Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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.” PeopleIfsWellsHalfFourProductionsSpeedObligationFactorsHalf Time Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.” IfsFunnyProcessComputerCodeProgrammingSoftwareBugsFunny InspirationalProgrammersComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesRemovalDevelopersSoftware EngineeringComputer ProgrammersSoftware DevelopmentComputer SoftwareFunny ComputerProgramming FunnyDebuggingComputer Hacking Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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.” IfsLittlesHardRealityFoundAchieveHard WorkNeededAppreciateFollowingEleganceDisadvantagesGood Education Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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.” IfsYearsWellsMeanEnoughWould BeComputerShouldersDirtyImmortalityProgrammingOver YouComputer ProgrammersComputer Software Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.” IfsThinkingLearningPiecesProgressProgramTrainCodeProgramming Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as "lines produced" but as "lines spent."” IfsShouldWishLinesLearningComputerRegardCodeProgrammingComputer Programming Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.” IfsThinkingImportantUseLanguageLearningInfluenceHabitAspectToolsTrainProfoundProgrammingElusiveComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer Language Book:A Discipline of Programming Source: A Discipline of Programming
“Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatical about the go to 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!” IfsBelieveFeelingsProblemFormFallSimpleDesignDisciplinePleaseTricksStatementsUncomfortableProgrammingSoftwareTrapsSoftware DesignUncomfortable Feeling Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further, and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics.” IfsStepsEssentialsAppreciateMathematicsTraditionalMathematicalIngredientsMathematicianEleganceProposeClumsy Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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 with.” IfsWantShouldWasteProgrammingIntroducingBugsProgrammersDebugging Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“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 make it so complex yourself. But if your program doesn't work, there is no one to hide behind. You cannot hide behind an obstinate nature. If it doesn't work, you've messed up.” IfsBehindsProgramBlameComplexesDepthPhysicsProgrammingBehind YouMessed UpObstinateUncharted Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“In this respect a program is like a poem: you cannot write a poem without writing it. Yet people talk about programming as if it were a production process and measure "programmer productivity" in terms of "number of lines of code produced". In so doing they book that number on the wrong side of the ledger: we should always refer to "the number of lines of code spent".” PeopleIfsShouldWritingBookProcessSidesTermLinesNumbersProgramProductionsProductivityCodeProgrammingProgrammers Author:Edsger Dijkstra
