News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by qsort on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @01:48AM (#34077470)
It's also a sentence constantly on my mind. It's interesting to note it's a very different type of criticism than the ones that usually balloon when something new or supposedly new becomes public.

It's the kind of criticism that leaves room for genuine acceptance of the technical excellence and usefulness of those tools, while not buying the hype in the slightest.

EWDs are a gold mine. He's an exceptional thinker and his prose is beautiful.

Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by baxtr on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:43AM (#34078165)
Can you recommend any book by him? Or essays?
Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by 082349872349872 on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:55AM (#34078233)
Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by baxtr on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @04:48AM (#34078597)
Thanks for sharing! I realize I should have been clearer in my request. I was looking for 1-2 specific recommendations. I will look at the lists nonetheless.
Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by rramadass on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @05:26AM (#34078872)
Two books that i can recommend;

1) A Method of Programming.

2) A Discipline of Programming.

Browse the EWDs and read those whose titles interest you. My favourites are those dealing with Program Correctness and Languages.

Note that understanding Dijkstra can be hard; so don't be discouraged if you don't "get" something at the first read.

Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by ryloric on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @05:11AM (#34078770)
EWD-898 I liked above is pretty great imo. I'v re-read it over half a dozen times over the years and still find it valuable.
Re:A handwritten letter from Dijkstra to an aspiring teenage... by qsort on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @05:17AM (#34078812)
My personal favorites:

On the cruelty of really teaching computer science: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd10xx/EWD1036.PDF

How do we tell truths that might hurt?: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/ewd498.htm...

The humble programmer: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340...

The notational conventions I adopted and why: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1300.PDF

The Mathematical Divide: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1268.PDF

Why American Computing Science seems incurable: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1209.PDF