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"Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are intrinsically doomed to fail." And yet Python became a thing. In Djikstra's defense, Python's design
by axlee 9y ago
"Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are intrinsically doomed to fail."
And yet Python became a thing. In Djikstra's defense, Python's design philoshophy is more about striving to be a "highly readable language" rather than to emulate a "natural language", but the two are almost interchangeable in practice.
- nv-vn 9y agoThen again, the argument is not against the wide use of the language, but the way the ideas are manifested. For all we know, Dijkstra might have hated Python.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago>"For all we know, Dijkstra might have hated Python." Dijkstra died in 2002, which was after Python was released. There may be some comments from him out there about the language, though I can't be bothered to look them up, I don't find Dijkstra to be particularly insightful.
- sethrin 9y agoIt's worth noting that Dijkstra was a computer scientist, not a programmer. From Wikipedia: > Despite having invented much of the technology of software, Dijkstra eschewed the use of computers in his own work for many decades. Even after he succumbed to his UT colleagues' encouragement and acquired a Macintosh computer, he used it only for e-mail and for browsing the World Wide Web. I think Dijkstra was writing from a very specific perspective, and that is mostly only relevant today from a historical viewpoint.