A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
cs.utexas.edu
A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
1–10 of 107 posts
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#2Since we're talking about Dijkstra, thought I'd bring up the letter he wrote to the University of Texas when they replaced Haskell with Java in their introductory programming course:
https://chrisdone.com/posts/dijkstra-haskell-java
https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/OtherDocs/To%20the%20Bud...
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#3For those who want to see Dijkstra's mathematics of programs in action:
1) basic (great for kids, math novices, whatever): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470684534/ref=dbs_a_def_r... (ignore the two star review, this book would get 5 stars from me)
2) advanced (free, complete with videos): http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hehner/aPToP/
3) advanced: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470848820/ref=dbs_a_def_r...
4) advanced, theoretical, from the man himself: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461279242
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#4I thought the moral was going to be that accommodating toiletless cars cost more than simply building all cars with toilets.
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#5Since we're talking about Dijkstra, thought I'd bring up the letter he wrote to the University of Texas when they replaced Haskell with Java in their introductory programming course: https://chrisdone.com/posts/dijkstra-haskell-java https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/OtherDocs/To%20the%20Bud...
Great letter (2001). It predictably focuses on language quality and side-steps practicality-- the assumption being practicality isn't as important as learning a high-quality language in an introductory course.
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#6Moral: The engineer who conceived of the innovation was forgotten and not compensated for it, and the train owners made the bulk of the money.
Sounds like software engineering to me!
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#7I don't quite understand why 'true mathematicians' fail to get the point. Any ideas?
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#8I don't quite understand why 'true mathematicians' fail to get the point. Any ideas?
true mathematicians don't do practicality. https://xkcd.com/435/
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#9So in the end the permanently coupled tuple of cars is handled as a single car, it kind of proves that every car must have a toilet? Or perhaps the next manager reiterates the rationale and decides to put just one toilet every two car tuples...
Re: A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
#10I don't quite understand why 'true mathematicians' fail to get the point. Any ideas?
Because you get to the solution and you say, "But that's just the same thing..."