News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983. Parent comment

Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by edejong on Friday May 22, 2020 @01:58AM (#23269068)
That quote is misattributed and I also think it is not something Dijkstra would have said. Quite the opposite actually. However, I think this quote from him is much more beautiful:

In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.

(Turing award lecture, 1972)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by dreamcompiler on Friday May 22, 2020 @08:53AM (#23271491)
He did say it because I heard him say it. The sentence just before was: "Our field should be called 'Computing Science' rather than 'Computer Science.'"
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by tosers4 on Friday May 22, 2020 @09:25AM (#23271758)
In my language most university courses/majors are actually named like that. Common names: "Ciências da Computação": Computing Science "Engenharia Informática": (Informática is usually translated as computer or computing science, or just computing) CS Engineering Less common: "Ciencias dos Computadores": Computer Science "Engenharia Informática e Ciências dos Computadores": I bet you can translate this one
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by C1sc0cat on Friday May 22, 2020 @09:51AM (#23272041)
Dijkstra probably assumed that you would have the programming chops and language knowledge.

As our second best DBA did when I worked at BT - he had worked at NPL and Dijkstra was his boss

[ Parent | on HN ]