Add an observation by Dijkstra software engineering.

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Greg Lehey 2004-03-22 05:02:01 +00:00
parent 3280e5dc69
commit b0487aaa20
Notes: svn2git 2020-12-20 02:59:44 +00:00
svn path=/head/; revision=127294

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@ -15408,6 +15408,23 @@ worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?
What is a magician but a practicing theorist?
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi
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What is actually happening, I am afraid, is that we all tell each
other and ourselves that software engineering techniques should be
improved considerably, because there is a crisis. But there are a few
boundary conditions which apparently have to be satisfied:
1. We may not change our thinking habits.
2. We may not change our programming tools.
3. We may not change our hardware.
4. We may not change our tasks.
5. We may not change the organizational set-up
in which the work has to be done.
Now under these five immutable boundary conditions, we have to try to
improve matters. This is utterly ridiculous.
Edsger W. Dijkstra, on receiving the ACM Turing Award in 1972
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What is mind? No matter.
What is matter? Never mind.
-- Thomas Hewitt Key, 1799-1875