A while ago I came across a paper written by Niklaus Wirth. Well, okay, I don't read "papers", but I do read programming.reddit.com, and so came across some guy who does read papers, whose story made it to the reddit front page. I'll just link to him.
So here's how this goes: I'm only going to quote a small section of the original paper, then ask, "does this sound familiar to you in any way?"
Okay, here goes. Niklaus Wirth:
By contrast, modern languages are constantly growing. Their size and complexity is simply beyond anything that might serve as a logical foundation. In fact, they elude human grasp. Manuals have reached dimensions that effectively discourage any search for enlightenment. As a consequence, programming is not learnt from rules and logical derivations, but rather by trial and error. The glory of interactivity helps.
…so, ring any bells?
Remember Me
a@href@title, b, blockquote@cite, em, i, strike, strong, sub, sup, u
Powered by: newtelligence dasBlog 2.2.8279.16125
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.
© Copyright 2010, Peter Seale
E-mail