Frasi di Edsger Dijkstra pagina 3

“L'informatica non riguarda i computer più di quanto l'astronomia riguardi i telescopi. ”

“Il test di un programma può essere usato per mostrare la presenza di bug, ma mai per mostrare la loro assenza.”

“La semplicità è un prerequisito per l'affidabilità.”

da Notes On Structured Programming, 1970

“For a number of years I have been familiar with the observation that the quality of programmers is a decreasing function of the density of go to statements in the programs they produce. More recently I discovered why the use of the go to statement has such disastrous effects, and I became convinced that the go to statement should be abolished from all "higher level" programming languages.”

da How do we tell truths that might hurt? http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html, 1975

Edsger Dijkstra: Frasi in inglese

“Probably I am very naive, but I also think I prefer to remain so, at least for the time being and perhaps for the rest of my life.”

1960s

“This is generally true: any sizeable piece of program, or even a complete program package, is only a useful tool that can be used in a reliable fashion, provided that the documentation pertinent for the user is much shorter than the program text. If any machine or system requires a very thick manual, its usefulness becomes for that very circumstance subject to doubt!”

Refering to his conclusion to the Barber paradox or Russell's paradox. Dijkstra (1985) Where is Russell's paradox? http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD09xx/EWD923a.html (EWD 923A). 1980s

“[Though computer science is a fairly new discipline, it is predominantly based on the Cartesian world view. As Edsgar W. Dijkstra has pointed out] A scientific discipline emerges with the - usually rather slow!”

Dijkstra, "On the reliability of programs" https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD303.html (EWD 303). Unknown date

“LISP has been jokingly described as "the most intelligent way to misuse a computer."”

discovery of which aspects can be meaningfully 'studied in isolation for the sake of their own consistency.
Dijkstra (1982) as cited in: Douglas Schuler, Douglas Schuler Jonathan Jacky (1989) Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing, 1987. Vol 1, p. 84.
1980s

“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"”

I think that description a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
1970s, The Humble Programmer (1972)

“Using PL/1 must be like flying a plane with 7000 buttons, switches and handles to manipulate in the cockpit.”

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. Dijkstra (1975) Comments at a Symposium http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD05xx/EWD512.html (EWD 512). 1970s

“Some people found error messages they couldn't ignore more annoying than wrong results, and, when judging the relative merits of programming languages, some still seem to equate "the ease of programming" with the ease of making undetected mistakes.”

1970s, The Humble Programmer (1972)