Re:Massacring C Pointers
by GrumpyYoungMan on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @11:35AM
(#17401409)
> Having a discussion with someone who quotes Dijkstra can be frustrating.
Agreed. Most of the time, it seems the pithy quotes are the only thing that the quoter knows about Dijkstra.
> You end up having to explain why blanket bans on goto don't make sense
For Dijkstra's GOTO quote specifically, there's a wonderful document by David Tribble named "Go To Statement Considered Harmful: A Retrospective" that does a line-by-line analysis of Dijkstra's paper and explains what Dijkstra's meant in the context of his time and examines where usage of GOTO still makes sense today.
Dijkstra is the Nietzsche of computer science: Eminent, quotable, often irritated, and prone to be taken exactly the wrong way by people who only half-understand his ideas.
The dicta of Dijisktra should be handled with the same accommodation of self-contradictory paradox as is accorded to zen koans.
Ask them whether they'd use Yogi Berra quotes to decide how best to manage a baseball team.
Re:Massacring C Pointers
by hindsightbias on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @12:54PM
(#17402200)
Dijkstra is the Godwin of Computer Science
At this point I'm ready to say "Dijkstra considered harmful" or "the use of Dijkstra quotes cripples the mind, their use in discussions should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence."