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Alan Kay on Dijkstra

vermilyer

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  • Recommended by 1 person: 1 in engineering communities.
  • Presented by Alan Kay, Turing Award laureate
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

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19K views15 years ago1 recommendation

History and cultureProgramming languagesHistory of computingPeople who shaped computing

Alan Kay shares a humorous critique of Edsger Dijkstra, coining the joke that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.

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What people say. Frequently cited for its famous, humorous quote about measuring arrogance in computer science in nano-Dijkstras.

u/cavedavein r/compsci • Recommends

Alan Kay on Dijkstra
46View on Reddit

u/ThirstehApplied Cryptographyin r/compsci • Mentions

On “E. W. Djikstra on Haskell vs. Java in 2001”

They always had a bit of a rivalry. The quote thespacebaronmonkey referenced is from his 1997 OOPSLA keynote. Dijkstra loathed OOP, and of course Alan Kay is widely regarded as a pioneer of OOP. Here's a quote from Dijkstra: “Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.” — Edsger W. Dijkstra ;)
18View on Reddit

elcapitanon Hacker News • Mentions

On “On the fact that the Atlantic Ocean has two sides (1982) [pdf]”

Not advocating Alan Kay's view on Dijkstra here, but his answer to this is still very funny: link to this video "You may know that arrogance in computer science is measured in Nano-Dijkstras. .. I wrote a rebuttal paper just named 'On the fact that most software in the world is written on one side of the Atlantic'."
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jimhefferonon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The undeserved status of the pigeon-hole principle (1991)”

"Arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstra's" - Alan Kay ( link to this video ) (I usually like Dijkstra's works but the quote does make a person smile.)
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dshepon Hacker News • Mentions

On “On the foolishness of “natural language programming” (1979)”

For better or worst, reading Dijkstra always reminds of these funny (I think) comments that Alan Kay made in 1997... "Arrogance in Computer Science is measured in nano-Dijkstras" --Alan Kay Video: link to this video
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