6 ms·

For those interested in Dijkstra, this website has a lot to offer: http://www.dijkstrascry.com/ http://www.dijkstrascry.com/ I also followed some lectures give

For those interested in Dijkstra, this website has a lot to offer: http://www.dijkstrascry.com/ http://www.dijkstrascry.com/ I also followed some lectures given by the guy that runs that website. Apparently Dijkstra was not an easy person to get along with, there are stories of him being bored during some lecture, walking to the front, and laying down for a nap. (Sorry I can't provide a source, it's basically a rumour among academic staff here in Belgium).

duckerude 8y ago
> David Gries (Cornell University) was one of the recipients of "on-line" coaching during a lecture: > My own experience with lecturing before Edsger took place in Marktoberdorf. It rests on the fact that in some languages (notably Fortran), the equality symbol and the assignment symbol are the same, and many people say "x equals e" when they mean "store the value of e in x," or "x becomes e." > I was lecturing along, when I said "x equals e" meaning an assignment of e to x. From the back of the room came a loud "becomes," and then a stunned silence. Finally, I gathered my wits and said, "Thank you, Edsger, for correcting me. If I make the same mistake again, stop me." Twenty minutes later, I made the same mistake, and again from the back of the room came "becomes" "Thanks, I won't make the mistake again," I said, and to this day I haven't! (https://history.computer.org/pioneers/dijkstra.html https://history.computer.org/pioneers/dijkstra.html)
kieckerjan 8y ago
One of my drinking buddies, who has no affinity with computers whatsoever, recently casually remarked how he had often met Dijkstra. Apparently he was friends with one of the Dijkstra kids and used to visit him at their home in Nuenen. "The father was supposed to be some hotshot computer professor." Needless to say, I nearly swooned when he told that. I couldn't help pumping him for details, none of which I feel at liberty to pass on to you, except that he thought Dijkstra was excentric but kind.
- wsc981 8y ago
  Perhaps not completely related to this topic, but interesting nonetheless, a small picture into Dijkstra's life from Dutch tv (subtitled in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCigccBzIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCigccBzIU
  - Bootvis 8y ago
    Interesting video, thanks. The subtitles at around 4:05 are out of sync. The quote reads > Je moet de wereld niet geven waarom ze vraagt, maar wat ze nodig heeft. In English: > You must not give the world what it asks, but what it needs.
marcosdumay 8y ago
There is an old joke on the Internet about measuring arrogance in nanoDijkstra, but I don't know how much of it is about real arrogance and how much is about he telling things as they are.
- goto11 8y ago
  It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. - Dijkstra Pretty arrogant gatekeeping. And obviously wrong.
  - okl 8y ago
    Taken from EWD 498, which is easily recognizable as satire unless you present it ouf of context. https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/E...
    - goto11 8y ago
      Yeah, quite the opposite of "telling things as they are".
    - marcosdumay 8y ago
      I am unable to read that presentation as satire. And as somebody that grew up using BASIC, he is much more correct than the overall "consensus" of the time. (Read "consensus" as "successful propaganda".)
      - goto11 8y ago
        It was impossible for you to learn good programming?
        marcosdumay 8y ago
        It took many years of unlearning. But that was on my own, I can't be sure if a teaching environment would make it faster.
okl 8y ago
Edgar Daylight (the guy that runs that website) writes interesting books/booklets interviewing persons like Barbara Liskov and Donald Knuth. Here is a list of them: http://www.lonelyscholar.com/ http://www.lonelyscholar.com/ I have read them all and recommend them. The one with Michael Jackson is particularly intersting for it's dialectic qualities.
odyssey7 8y ago
One I’ve heard is that at a conference someone asked him “what do you do?” to which he replied “I cast false pearls before real swine.” I don’t know if it really happened, but it’s clear that a lot of people didn’t like him.
- MaysonL 8y ago
  And also clear that the feeling was mutual.
wim 8y ago
Another typical part of the lecture style was the “Dijkstra Font”. Some of the lectures in my CS program were given by people who worked with Dijkstra, like Feijen, and they all used the exact same style of beautiful handwriting. Perhaps the font was a result of really taking the time to think things over to make sure it was correct. Those lectures could move real slow when it was time to write some predicate logic or pseudo-code on a blackboard, but they hardly used the eraser.
mcguire 8y ago
He was rather famous at UT Austin for asking if the colors on the slides of speakers' slides meant anything. I believe it was some form of hazing for prospective faculty. Also, there was some discussion of the difference between a stack data structure and a networking stack. On the other hand, everyone who I personally know, who took one of his classes, really liked it and him.

duckerude 8y ago

> David Gries (Cornell University) was one of the recipients of "on-line" coaching during a lecture: > My own experience with lecturing before Edsger took place in Marktoberdorf. It rests on the fact that in some languages (notably Fortran), the equality symbol and the assignment symbol are the same, and many people say "x equals e" when they mean "store the value of e in x," or "x becomes e." > I was lecturing along, when I said "x equals e" meaning an assignment of e to x. From the back of the room came a loud "becomes," and then a stunned silence. Finally, I gathered my wits and said, "Thank you, Edsger, for correcting me. If I make the same mistake again, stop me." Twenty minutes later, I made the same mistake, and again from the back of the room came "becomes" "Thanks, I won't make the mistake again," I said, and to this day I haven't! (https://history.computer.org/pioneers/dijkstra.html https://history.computer.org/pioneers/dijkstra.html)

kieckerjan 8y ago

One of my drinking buddies, who has no affinity with computers whatsoever, recently casually remarked how he had often met Dijkstra. Apparently he was friends with one of the Dijkstra kids and used to visit him at their home in Nuenen. "The father was supposed to be some hotshot computer professor." Needless to say, I nearly swooned when he told that. I couldn't help pumping him for details, none of which I feel at liberty to pass on to you, except that he thought Dijkstra was excentric but kind.

wsc981 8y ago
Perhaps not completely related to this topic, but interesting nonetheless, a small picture into Dijkstra's life from Dutch tv (subtitled in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCigccBzIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCigccBzIU
- Bootvis 8y ago
  Interesting video, thanks. The subtitles at around 4:05 are out of sync. The quote reads > Je moet de wereld niet geven waarom ze vraagt, maar wat ze nodig heeft. In English: > You must not give the world what it asks, but what it needs.

marcosdumay 8y ago

There is an old joke on the Internet about measuring arrogance in nanoDijkstra, but I don't know how much of it is about real arrogance and how much is about he telling things as they are.

goto11 8y ago
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. - Dijkstra Pretty arrogant gatekeeping. And obviously wrong.
- okl 8y ago
  Taken from EWD 498, which is easily recognizable as satire unless you present it ouf of context. https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/E...
  - goto11 8y ago
    Yeah, quite the opposite of "telling things as they are".
  - marcosdumay 8y ago
    I am unable to read that presentation as satire. And as somebody that grew up using BASIC, he is much more correct than the overall "consensus" of the time. (Read "consensus" as "successful propaganda".)
    - goto11 8y ago
      It was impossible for you to learn good programming?
      - marcosdumay 8y ago
        It took many years of unlearning. But that was on my own, I can't be sure if a teaching environment would make it faster.

okl 8y ago

Edgar Daylight (the guy that runs that website) writes interesting books/booklets interviewing persons like Barbara Liskov and Donald Knuth. Here is a list of them: http://www.lonelyscholar.com/ http://www.lonelyscholar.com/ I have read them all and recommend them. The one with Michael Jackson is particularly intersting for it's dialectic qualities.

odyssey7 8y ago

One I’ve heard is that at a conference someone asked him “what do you do?” to which he replied “I cast false pearls before real swine.” I don’t know if it really happened, but it’s clear that a lot of people didn’t like him.

MaysonL 8y ago
And also clear that the feeling was mutual.

wim 8y ago

Another typical part of the lecture style was the “Dijkstra Font”. Some of the lectures in my CS program were given by people who worked with Dijkstra, like Feijen, and they all used the exact same style of beautiful handwriting. Perhaps the font was a result of really taking the time to think things over to make sure it was correct. Those lectures could move real slow when it was time to write some predicate logic or pseudo-code on a blackboard, but they hardly used the eraser.

mcguire 8y ago

He was rather famous at UT Austin for asking if the colors on the slides of speakers' slides meant anything. I believe it was some form of hazing for prospective faculty. Also, there was some discussion of the difference between a stack data structure and a networking stack. On the other hand, everyone who I personally know, who took one of his classes, really liked it and him.