| ▲ | adregan 2 hours ago | |||||||
APL is the only language I've ever dreamt about writing (as in: I could see the characters); I'd dreamt about programming in the past, but those dreams were usually what I would categorized as a nightmare—desperately trying to fix a bug that I couldn't figure out. Due to my affinity for the language, and my wish to have worked in its heyday (would love to have an APL gig someday), I have been exposed to various writings and recordings of Ken Iverson. I've also been exposed to a few of Dijkstra's thoughts on APL. I have to say that Iverson generally comes across as a very generous and curious individual while Dijkstra seems to have been a miserable ass. Maybe, given the lens, I've not given Dijkstra a proper chance to demonstrate a more positive attitude, so I'm open to any suggestions of writings where he doesn't seem like such a grump. | ||||||||
| ▲ | mlajtos 2 hours ago | parent [-] | |||||||
> Maybe, given the lens, I've not given Dijkstra a proper chance to demonstrate a more positive attitude, so I'm open to any suggestions of writings where he doesn't seem like such a grump. Kinda hard to find where Dijkstra praised something (except Algol 60). One funny example: he called FORTRAN "an infantile disorder", though he said this about the team behind it: "At that time this was a project of great temerity and the people responsible for it deserve our great admiration.". On LISP: "LISP has jokingly been described as 'the most intelligent way to misuse a computer'. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts." Alan Kay on Dijkstra: "Arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-dijkstras." | ||||||||
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