Edsger Dijkstra Quotes

Edsger Dijkstra — Dutch Scientist born on May 11, 1930, died on August 06, 2002

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra was a Dutch computer scientist and mathematical scientist. A theoretical physicist by training, he worked as a programmer at the Mathematisch Centrum from 1952 to 1962. He was a professor of mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology and a research fellow at the Burroughs Corporation. He held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until 1999, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1999... (wikipedia)

The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.

About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.

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.

The students that, like the wild animal being prepared for its tricks in the circus called 'life', expects only training as sketched above, will be severely disappointed: by his standards he will learn next to nothing.

There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.

Edsger Dijkstra Quotes

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