Dijkstra's Manuscripts Available Online

Bodrius writes "Salon has a short but interesting article called GOTO considered joyful, about E. W. Dijkstra's manuscripts, as published by the University of Texas, and their bloggish nature. I'm not sure if the blog analogy is that accurate, but the articles are a must read for computer scientists and geeks in general." (Annoying but free click-through system for non-subscribers.)

Comments

Re:Full Text (Subscribers Only Article)

[mirko]

This can't be : it was supposed to be manuscript, not typed !? :)

Re:Can someone shed more light on his misc. info?

[utahjazz]

Why did he use pens and not electronic formats? For a CS person that surprises me.

One of my profs said he was giving a speach at Dijkstra's school. He wanted to make sure Dijkstra didn't attend (apperently Dijkstra was an asshole), so he sent out the announcement via email only. This ensured that Dijkstra would never get the announcement, as he did have a computer.

I'm not sure if the blog analogy is that accurate,

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not accurate, because that would make the material self-important, tedious, badly written nonsense.

Wife swapping???

[tvm662]

There is some saucy stuff in there that he's written about wife swapping and you thought CS was dull.

Tom.

Re:Wife swapping???

[notque]

There is some saucy stuff in there that he's written about wife swapping and you thought CS was dull.

Now all we need is a p2p program for that, and we're set.

Slashdotters descended from Dijkstra

[loonix_gangsta]

Here's proof that Slashdotters are decended from Dijksta. Here's some quotes from document EWD498 "How do we tell truths that might hurt?". Note the problems that he faced in 1975 are similar to what we have today!

FORTRAN -- "the infantile disorder" --, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.

PL/I -- "the fatal disease"-- belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.

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 use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.

APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation
of coding bums.

Also the Microsoft-like problems that he faces with IBM. His disdain is clearly shown by labelling IBM the devil!

....

Many companies that have made themselves dependent on IBM-equipment (and in doing so have sold their soul to the devil) will collapse under the sheer weight of the unmastered complexity of their data processing systems.

We can found no scientific discipline, nor a healthy profession on the technical mistakes of the Department of Defences and, mainly, one computer manufacturer.

....

18th June 1975

Dijkstra - trolling since 1975 ;)

Re:Can someone shed more light on his misc. info?

[danguyf]

I am befuddled that one could consistently spell Dijkstra correctly and yet err in spelling 'speech'.

aper�u

[mausmalone]

(don't miss EWD 666: "A problem solved in my head," which contains the endearing aperçu: "Goldbach's Conjecture -- I had never thought that I would ever use that!")

The Fish says aperçu is a french word that means "outline." Stupid fucking Salon elitist fucktards.

I'm writing obscure french words in an english-language article, thereby ignoring the point of writing it in the first place! I exude a certain je ne sais quoi you cour de merd bourgoise can't approach!