Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

Dear computing comrades,

Today, i'd like to show you a piece of literature written by a eminent
mathematician Edsger W Dijkstra.

Here's 2 interesting quote from his letter:

â€=9CThe prevaling attitude was reflected in the creation of two litera=
ry
figures â€=94 admittedly of rather poor literature, but nevertheless of
great paralyzing power â€=94, viz. â€=9Cthe average programmer=E2=
€ and â€=9Cthe
casual userâ€=9D. Up to these days, academic research in programming
methodology has been supposed to respect the severe intellectual
limitations of these fictitious morons: consequently any proposal that
required any further education of the programming person was out.â€=9D

â€=9C... On the other hand we should be glad that the gospel of design =
by
derivation rather by trial and error is still preached.â€=9D

I happened to read it today. And, i think in your busy schedule of
checking out slashdot and blogging and driveling with your excitement
and concerns about current fashions and trends with your fellow peers
and factions; It is good once in a while to read something
unfashionable and not for-dummies.

This letter of EWD is about 16 pages.

Is somewhat a quaint rant. The first half i find interesting but
without much sympathy, perhaps because the author is mostly talking
about the situation in the mid 1990s, of which, i'm unfamiliar and too
early a period to touch me personally. But the latter part of the
letter, i find much empathy and concurrence. In particular, his
remarks related to the formal methods.

(for you math illiterates out there: the â€=9Cformalâ€=9D here does=
not mean
the opposite of â€=9Cinformalâ€=9D, as in â€=9Cformal dress=E2=
€ vs â€=9Cinformal dressâ€=9D.
Rather, â€=9Cformalâ€=9D here means â€=9Cmathematical reasoning=
by symbol
manipulation; the â€=98FORMâ€=99 in math FORMulasâ€=9D. (for yo=
u mathematicians
out there: the root of the word â€=9Cformalâ€=9D as in â€=9Cfor=
mal dressâ€=9D and
â€=9Cformalismâ€=9D, actually are the same. They both refers to =E2=
€œformâ€=9D as in a
empty shell, appearance.)) (So, when you â€=9Cdress up formallyâ€=
=9D to attend
your friend's wedding or death ceremony, it literally means you are
putting on a appearance.)

Now, without further ado, the article is at:

â€=9CUnder the spell of Leibniz's dreamâ€=9D (2000) By Edsger W Dij=
kstra
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1298.PDF

Xah
xah@xahlee.org
âˆ=91 http://xahlee.org/

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

On Aug 19, 7:56 pm, Xah Lee wrote:
> So, when you "dress up formally" to attend your friend's wedding...

Oh dear God, please *don't* remind me.

> "Under the spell of Leibniz's dream" (2000) By Edsger W Dijkstrahttp://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1298.PDF

A link to a copy in a non-toxic format would be nice.

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

Twisted wrote:
+---------------
| > "Under the spell of Leibniz's dream" (2000) By Edsger W
| > Dijkstrahttp://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1298.PDF
|
| A link to a copy in a non-toxic format would be nice.
+---------------

Well, the fact of the matter is that the bulk of Dijkstra's
"EWD" papers were written *long* before the web existed, typed
on a favorite manual typewriter which he continued using for the
remainder of his professional life.
has more details on the more than one thousand "EWD"s he wrote.
Until very recently, the *only* source for these documents was
either in hardback technical books (for the few that were published)
or in the PDF bitmaps of scans of the original manually-typed pages,
which the University of Texas at Austin has generously made [and
even after Dijkstra's death continues to make] available on-line.

However, a *few* but "growing number of the PDF bitmap documents
have been transcribed to make them searchable and accessible to
visitors who are visually impaired." If you would care to volunteer
[as over sixty others have done] to contribute to the transcriptions,
see .

Otherwise, just count your blessings that these gems are available
at all...


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock
627 26th Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

On 20 Aug., 01:56, Xah Lee wrote:

> (for you math illiterates out there: ...
> (for you mathematicians out there: ...

Please, Xah Lee, could you possibly stop to "explain" things that are
absolutely trivial? If somebody has doubts about the etymology of a
word, he may use the dictionary, or he could ask.

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

Twisted wrote:
> A link to a copy in a non-toxic format would be nice.

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EW D1298.html

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

Ingo Menger wrote:
> On 20 Aug., 01:56, Xah Lee wrote:
>
>> (for you math illiterates out there: ...
>> (for you mathematicians out there: ...
>
> Please, Xah Lee, could you possibly stop to "explain" things that are
> absolutely trivial? If somebody has doubts about the etymology of a
> word, he may use the dictionary, or he could ask.
>
>

I used usenet years ago then stopped for couple of years. I remember
seeing him/her on c.l.perl I believe doing the same thing he/she is
doing atm. I'd say the ultimate usenet superstar. Wow!

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

In comp.lang.lisp Bikal KC wrote:

> I used usenet years ago then stopped for couple of years. I remember
> seeing him/her on c.l.perl I believe doing the same thing he/she is
> doing atm. I'd say the ultimate usenet superstar. Wow!

I think it's some (probably mild) form of autism.
No offense intended, Xah.

Re: Xah"s Edu Corner: Under the spell of Leibniz"s dream

On Aug 23, 3:38 am, Matthias Buelow wrote:
> In comp.lang.lisp Bikal KC wrote:
>
> > I used usenet years ago then stopped for couple of years. I remember
> > seeing him/her on c.l.perl I believe doing the same thing he/she is
> > doing atm. I'd say the ultimate usenet superstar. Wow!
>
> I think it's some (probably mild) form of autism.
> No offense intended, Xah.

Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say, especially when they do that
most-common of usenet things -- insult your mental health and tone it
as if it were a very compassionate and understanding suggestion to
seek medical treatment rather than the flame that it is. :P