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

[Xah Lee]

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:

“The prevaling attitude was reflected in the creation of two literary
figures — admittedly of rather poor literature, but nevertheless of
great paralyzing power —, viz. “the average programmer” and “the
casual user”. 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.”

“... On the other hand we should be glad that the gospel of design by
derivation rather by trial and error is still preached.”

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 “formal” here does not mean
the opposite of “informal”, as in “formal dress” vs “informal dress”.
Rather, “formal” here means “mathematical reasoning by symbol
manipulation; the ‘FORM’ in math FORMulas”. (for you mathematicians
out there: the root of the word “formal” as in “formal dress” and
“formalism”, actually are the same. They both refers to “form” as in a
empty shell, appearance.)) (So, when you “dress up formally” 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:

“Under the spell of Leibniz's dream” (2000) By Edsger W Dijkstra
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd12xx/EWD1298.PDF

  Xah
  xah at xahlee.org
∑ http://xahlee.org/