4 ms·

The Humble Programmer by Edsger W. Dijkstra

56 points by zengr 15y ago

ColinWright 15y ago
An old friend. It was the Turing Award Lecture in 1972. Printed in "Classics in Software Engineering" by Yourdon Press, 1979, ISBN 0917072146 Here are some of the previous submissions here on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86288 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86288 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109724 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109724 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126638 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126638 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135111 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135111 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156505 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156505 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449806 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449806 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179277 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179277 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1649246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1649246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1672262 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1672262 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011732 So many postings, so little discussion.
- Bootvis 15y ago
  This is the only one with substantial comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 Edit: for some reason missed this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784
joeycfan 15y ago
I read somewhere that arrogance was measured in milliDijstras... You sure this is by the same guy?
m0wfo 15y ago
Heh, one of my lecturers was ranting about the millions wasted on research grants for testing methodologies when it's proven that they can't formally confirm program correctness. Old Edsger had a lot of foresight in that respect. Still, he's gloriously ambiguous about what he considers a 'modest and elegant programming language'.

56 points by zengr 15y ago

An old friend. It was the Turing Award Lecture in 1972. Printed in "Classics in Software Engineering" by Yourdon Press, 1979, ISBN 0917072146 Here are some of the previous submissions here on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86288 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86288 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109724 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109724 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126638 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126638 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135111 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135111 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156505 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156505 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449806 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449806 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179277 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179277 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1649246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1649246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1672262 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1672262 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011732 So many postings, so little discussion.

Bootvis 15y ago
This is the only one with substantial comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1799296 Edit: for some reason missed this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894784

joeycfan 15y ago

I read somewhere that arrogance was measured in milliDijstras... You sure this is by the same guy?

m0wfo 15y ago

Heh, one of my lecturers was ranting about the millions wasted on research grants for testing methodologies when it's proven that they can't formally confirm program correctness. Old Edsger had a lot of foresight in that respect. Still, he's gloriously ambiguous about what he considers a 'modest and elegant programming language'.