5 ms·

A nicely argued article, but I haven't come across anti-Dijkstra sentiment before, so I didn't realize it needed a response. Are there many folks out there who

A nicely argued article, but I haven't come across anti-Dijkstra sentiment before, so I didn't realize it needed a response. Are there many folks out there who consider Dijkstra "out of touch with reality", or was this just one wack-job on a mailing list?

wglb 17y ago
Generally, mention anything Dijkstra and you get the quick smackdown. And this has been going on since he was publishing. There was a big brouhaha when he was publishing that what he was proposing in the way of programming training wouldn't work because they were not culturally acceptable (?). Some examples are http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=477177 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=477177 or http://www.catonmat.net/blog/edsger-dijkstra-discipline-in-thought/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/edsger-dijkstra-discipline-in-t..., both the article and the comments. I could go on. And I would bet that if you watch this space you will see more of the same.
- xtho 17y ago
  You mean, generally on a php mailing list? I cannot imagine that somebody with at least rudimentary education in CS would concur with such a judgement.
  - wglb 17y ago
    Really anywhere and not just php mailing list. Well, I would like to think that is the case but sadly it is not.
  - wglb 17y ago
    This paper by ewd gives his overview of the industry and some of the reasons that "reality" seems out of step with good approaches.
    - wglb 17y ago
      And the url is http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1284.html http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EW...
tedunangst 17y ago
Here's an easy way to determine "reality". Find a large C program. Rewrite it so that none of the loops use break. How excited will the program's maintainers' be to receive your patch?
- anatoly 17y ago
  Clever, yet informative and to the point. I can't upvote you enough.

wglb 17y ago

Generally, mention anything Dijkstra and you get the quick smackdown. And this has been going on since he was publishing. There was a big brouhaha when he was publishing that what he was proposing in the way of programming training wouldn't work because they were not culturally acceptable (?). Some examples are http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=477177 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=477177 or http://www.catonmat.net/blog/edsger-dijkstra-discipline-in-thought/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/edsger-dijkstra-discipline-in-t..., both the article and the comments. I could go on. And I would bet that if you watch this space you will see more of the same.

xtho 17y ago
You mean, generally on a php mailing list? I cannot imagine that somebody with at least rudimentary education in CS would concur with such a judgement.
- wglb 17y ago
  Really anywhere and not just php mailing list. Well, I would like to think that is the case but sadly it is not.
- wglb 17y ago
  This paper by ewd gives his overview of the industry and some of the reasons that "reality" seems out of step with good approaches.
  - wglb 17y ago
    And the url is http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1284.html http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EW...

tedunangst 17y ago

Here's an easy way to determine "reality". Find a large C program. Rewrite it so that none of the loops use break. How excited will the program's maintainers' be to receive your patch?

anatoly 17y ago
Clever, yet informative and to the point. I can't upvote you enough.