Edsger Wybe Dijkstra quotes

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Edsger Wybe Dijkstra. (1930 - 2002). Dutch systems scientist, programmer, software engineer, science essayist, educator, physicist.

Two Kinds of System Designers

“There are two classes of system designers. The first, if given five problems will solve them one at a time. The second will come back and announce that these aren’t the real problems, and will eventually propose a solution to the single problem which underlies the original five. This is the ‘system type’ who is great during the initial stages of a design project. However, you had better get rid of him after the first six months if you want to get a working system.”
Keywords: Class_quotes System_quotes Design_quotes Problem_quotes Project_quotes Requirements_quotes Solve_quotes Real_quotes Underlie_quotes Initial_quotes Rid_quotes Work_quotes

Big Machines Big Problems

“As long as there were no machines, programming was no problem at all; when we had a few weak computers, programming became a mild problem, and now we have gigantic computers, programming has become an equally gigantic problem.”
  • Source: Edsger Wybe Dijkstra in an article entitled The Humble Programmer. Written by Edsger W. Dijkstra. Published 1972 in Communications of the ACM, volume 15, number 10. DOI: 10.1145/355604.361591.
Keywords: Machine_quotes Programming_quotes Problem_quotes Computer_quotes Gigantic_quotes

Humble Programmers

"We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers."
  • Source: Edsger Wybe Dijkstra in an article entitled The Humble Programmer. Written by Edsger W. Dijkstra. Published 1972 in Communications of the ACM, volume 15, number 10. DOI: 10.1145/355604.361591.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Appreciation_quotes Difficulty_quotes Modesty_quotes Humility_quotes Elegant_quotes Mind_quotes Limitation_quotes Programmer_quotes Approach_quotes Task_quotes Modest_quotes Language_quotes Respect_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Human_quotes

Testing Bug Presence

“Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.“
  • Source: Dijkstra (1969) J.N. Buxton and B. Randell, eds, Software Engineering Techniques, April 1970, p. 16. Report on a conference sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, Rome, Italy, 27–31 October 1969.
Keywords: Testing_quotes Bug_quotes Quality_quotes Presense_quotes Absence_quotes Show_quotes

Black Box Correctness

“A convincing demonstration of correctness being impossible as long as the mechanism is regarded as a black box, our only hope lies in not regarding the mechanism as a black box.”
Keywords: Correctness_quotes Demonstration_quotes Impossibility_quotes Mechanism_quotes Black_Bok_quotes Hope_quotes Convincing_quotes Regard_quotes

Art of Programming

“The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and avoiding its bastard chaos as effectively as possible.”
Keywords: Art_quotes Programming_quotes Complexity_quotes Multitude_quotes Chaos_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Possibility_quotes Organization_quotes Master_quotes Avoid_quotes Bastard_quotes

Competent Programmer

“The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague.”
Keywords: Competence_quotes Programmer_quotes Programming_quotes Limitation_quotes Intelligence_quotes Humility_quotes Trick_quotes Plague_quotes Aware_quotes Size_quotes Skull_quotes Approach_quotes Task_quotes Avoid_quotes Clever_quotes

Competent Programming

“Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for 'the average programmer' — you must not fall into the trap of rejecting a surgical technique because it is beyond the capabilities of the barber in his shop around the corner.”
Keywords: Competence_quotes Blame_quotes Programming_quotes Programmer_quotes Surgical_quotes Technique_quotes Capability_quotes Average_quotes Rejection_quotes Barber_quotes Fact_quotes Intellectual_quotes Possibility_quotes Difficult_quotes Fall_quotes Trap_quotes Shop_quotes Corner_quotes

Advice

"One moral of the above story is, of course, that we must be very careful when we give advice to younger people; sometimes they follow it!"
Keywords: Moral_quotes Advice_quotes People_quotes Youth_quotes Story_quotes Careful_quotes Follow_quotes

Programming Dogmatism

"Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatic about [the go to statement]. I have the uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming could be solved by a simple trick, by a simple form of coding discipline!"
  • Source: Dijkstra (1973) in personal communication to Donald Knuth, quoted in Knuth's “Structured Programming with go to Statements”, online at https://pic.plover.com/knuth-GOTO.pdf retrieved 2022.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Belief_quotes Dogmatism_quotes Religion_quotes Conceptual_quotes Problem_quotes Trick_quotes Discipline_quotes Goto_quotes

Powers of Abstraction

“The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.”
  • Source: The Humble Programmer (1972), 1972 Turing Award Lecture[1], Communications of the ACM 15 (10), October 1972: pp. 859–866.
Keywords: Effectiveness_quotes Exploitation_quotes Power_quotes Abstraction_quotes Activity_quotes Competence_quotes Programmer_quotes Programming_quotes Vital_quotes

Math and Language

“Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.”
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Language_quotes Verbal_quotes Competence_quotes Programmer_quotes Inclination_quotes Exceptional_quotes Mastery_quotes Native_quotes Tongue_quotes Vital_quotes Asset_quotes

Simplicity and Reliability

“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”

Programming is Difficult

“Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.”
Keywords: Programming_quotes Difficulty_quotes Branch_quotes Mathematics_quotes Apply_quotes Poor_quotes

Machines Can Think

“The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.”
Keywords: Question_quotes Machine_quotes Thinking_quotes Submarine_quotes Swimming_quotes Artificial_Intelligence_quotes Relevant_quotes

Simplicity

“Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.”
Keywords: Simplicity_quotes Virtue_quotes Work_quotes Education_quotes Appreciation_quotes Complexity_quotes Sell_quotes

Lines of Code

“My point today is that, if we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as 'lines produced' but as 'lines spent': the current conventional wisdom is so foolish as to book that count on the wrong side of the ledger.”
Keywords: Metric_quotes Code_quotes Line_quotes Programming_quotes Production_quotes Spending_quotes Wisdom_quotes Ledger_quotes Wish_quotes Count_quotes Regard_quotes Convention_quotes Foolish_quotes Book_quotes Wrong_quotes Side_quotes

Formulas

“A picture may be worth a thousand words, a formula is worth a thousand pictures.”
Keywords: Picture_quotes Word_quotes Formula_quotes Mathematics_quotes Worth_quotes

Information Knowledge Understanding Wisdom

“May, in spite of all distractions generated by technology, all of you succeed in turning information into knowledge, knowledge into understanding, and understanding into wisdom.”
Keywords: Technology_quotes Information_quotes Knowledge_quotes Understanding_quotes Wisdom_quotes Distraction_quotes Generate_quotes Succeed_quotes Turn_quotes

Effective Reasoning

“The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don't master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus.”
Keywords: Technique_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Reason_quotes Formal_quotes Programming_quotes Skill_quotes Software_quotes Crisis_quotes Incurability_quotes Disease_quotes Quack_quotes Charlatan_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Guru_quotes People_quotes Master_quotes Engineering_quotes

Society Wants and Needs

“It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs.”
Keywords: Task_quotes University_quotes Education_quotes Society_quotes Request_quotes Asking_quotes Need_quotes

Programming Styles

“There are very different programming styles. I tend to see them as Mozart versus Beethoven. When Mozart started to write, the composition was finished. He wrote the manuscript and it was 'aus einem Guss' (from one cast). In beautiful handwriting, too. Beethoven was a doubter and a struggler who started writing before he finished the composition and then glued corrections onto the page. In one place he did this nine times. When they peeled them, the last version proved identical to the first one.”
  • Source: Dijkstra (2001) Source: Denken als discipline, a program from Dutch public TV broadcaster VPRO from April 10th, 2001 about Dijkstra.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Style_quotes Differences_quotes Music_quotes Creativity_quotes Correction_quotes Mozart(topic)_quotes Beethoven(topic)_quotes Write_quotes Composition_quotes Finish_quotes Manuscript_quotes Beautiful_quotes Handwriting_quotes Doubt_quotes Struggle_quotes Glue_quotes Page_quotes Peel_quotes Version_quotes Identical_quotes First_quotes Last_quotes

Dijkstra Algorithm

“What is the shortest way to travel from Rotterdam to Groningen, in general: from given city to given city. It is the algorithm for the shortest path, which I designed in about twenty minutes. One morning I was shopping in Amsterdam with my young fiancée, and tired, we sat down on the café terrace to drink a cup of coffee and I was just thinking about whether I could do this, and I then designed the algorithm for the shortest path. As I said, it was a twenty-minute invention. In fact, it was published in ’59, three years late. The publication is still readable, it is, in fact, quite nice. One of the reasons that it is so nice was that I designed it without pencil and paper. I learned later that one of the advantages of designing without pencil and paper is that you are almost forced to avoid all avoidable complexities. Eventually that algorithm became, to my great amazement, one of the cornerstones of my fame.”
  • Source: Dijkstra (2001), in an interview with Philip L. Frana. (OH 330; Communications of the ACM 53(8):41–47)
Keywords: Short_quotes Travel_quotes City_quotes Path_quotes Coffee_quotes Thinking_quotes Algorithm_quotes Invention_quotes Innovation_quotes Publication_quotes Pencil_quotes Paper_quotes Complexity_quotes Fame_quotes Design_quotes Advantage_quotes Amazement_quotes Cornerstone_quotes

Software Crisis

“The turning point was the Conference on Software Engineering in Garmisch, October 1968, a conference that created a sensation as there occurred the first open admission of the software crisis.”
Keywords: Turning_quotes Change_quotes Conference_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Software_quotes Crisis_quotes Engineering_quotes Sensation_quotes Occur_quotes Admission_quotes
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