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I'm amused at EWD498 - How do we tell truths that might hurt? https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498...

    Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

    ...

    The use of anthropomorphic terminology when dealing with computing systems is a symptom of professional immaturity.

    ...

    Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are intrinsically doomed to fail.
I'd also recommend EWD1305 https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD13xx/EWD130...

    Answers to questions from students of Software Engineering
    [The approximate reconstruction of the questions is left as an exercise to the reader.]

    ...

    No, I'm afraid that computer science has suffered from the popularity of the Internet. It has attracted an increasing —not to say: overwhelming!— number of students with very little scientific inclination and in research it has only strengthened the prevailing (and somewhat vulgar) obsession with speed and capacity.

    Yes, I share your concern: how to program well —though a teachable topic— is hardly taught. The situation is similar to that in mathematics, where the explicit curriculum is confined to mathematical results; how to do mathematics is something the student must absorb by osmosis, so to speak. One reason for preferring symbol-manipulating, calculating arguments is that their design is much better teachable than the design of verbal/pictorial arguments. Large-scale introduction of courses on such calculational methodology, however, would encounter unsurmountable political problems.


Dijkstra was so based.




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