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To add to the history lesson, Herr Doktor Professor Djikstra's infamous "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" should perhaps have been titled "Call Stack Conside
by samatman 5y ago
To add to the history lesson, Herr Doktor Professor Djikstra's infamous "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" should perhaps have been titled "Call Stack Considered Very Useful".
It's worth reading with this understanding, and of course, it is a must to follow through with Dr. Knuth's equally seminal "Structured Programming with go to Statements", in which Djikstra is briefly quoted to qualify and clarify his position on the matter.
- meepmorp 5y ago> To add to the history lesson, Herr Doktor Professor Djikstra Dijkstra was Dutch, not Deutsch.
- samatman 5y agoWell, yes. But I'm able to construct the German form from memory, and have found myself unable to produce a Dutch equivalent even from reference. When writing it, I imagined Meneer Djikstra rolling his eyes a bit. Which... fits.
- cycomanic 5y agoIt is actually not quite correct in German either, it should be Herr Professor Doktor not Doktor Professor.
- canadianfella 5y ago> Herr Doktor What?
- Stratoscope 5y agoAlso worth noting that Dijkstra did not write the title for that letter, CACM editor Niklaus Wirth did.
- DicIfTEx 5y agoSpeaking of Wirth, he wrote a similar essay to the OP: https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Articles/GoodIdeas_origFig.pdf https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/Articles/GoodIdeas_origFig....