A convincing demonstration of
A convincing demonstration of correctness being impossible as long as the mechanism is regarded as a black box, our only hope lies in not regarding the mechanism as a black box. Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra
A programming language is
A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits. Edsger Dijkstra
I mentioned the non-competitive
I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection. Edsger Dijkstra
Several people have told
Several people have told me that my inability to suffer fools gladly is one of my main weaknesses. Edsger Dijkstra
… as a slow-witted
… as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure. Edsger Dijkstra
If there is one
If there is one ‘scientific’ discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind. Edsger Dijkstra
There is very little
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. Edsger Dijkstra
Some consider the puzzles
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. Edsger Dijkstra
When I came back
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 … Read more
Computer science has as
Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes. Edsger Dijkstra