Dijkstra on Dutch TV (2000)

Re:Dijkstra on Dutch TV (2000) by dkarapetyan on Sunday May 25, 2014 @03:27AM (#7795747)

What makes you think correctness was not a priority for the software that put a man on the moon? If you actually look a the history and how the software was actually written there is no doubt that correctness was a top priority. It even had facilities that a lot of modern software lacks: self-correction. Before running your mouth you should read the actual history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer. Not being up to Dijkstra's standards is a different matter altogether.

He is right about one thing. Elegance and correctness require a certain level of intelligence and sophistication that the average software developer lacks.

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Re:Dijkstra on Dutch TV (2000) by justin66 on Sunday May 25, 2014 @06:49AM (#7796047)

> What makes you think correctness was not a priority for the software that put a man on the moon?

I reread what I wrote and I honestly don't know why you'd want to attribute that belief to me. Not acknowledging all the priorities in the correctness tradeoff was something I was writing against. Not counting correctness as a priority would certainly qualify.

I've always found NASA discussions of software quality to be interesting and informed by practical experience.

> Before running your mouth you should read the actual history

I consider your attitude harmful.

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