Aucbarpa.1280
net.followup
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!G:ARPAVAX:arnold
Fri May 7 13:31:52 1982
Re: Dr. Dijkstra speaks...
I, too, don't like his tendency to think what he says is the "TRUTH"
However, the thing which nicked my (besides his statement about CS=Math
since I'm a fairly poor mathematician, but consider myself a good
programmer) was his statement that anthropomorhpism was the sign of
professional immaturity. Surely to take anthropomorphism seriously
is not a good idea, but to use it as a method of discussion is no
more "immature" than it was for ship captains to refer to their ships
as "she" instead of "it". Most people I know use anthropomorphic
terms interchangibly with more "realistic" terms on a wide variety
of objects, not only computers. It is a natural process of human
thought, and to judge people by it is, to me, the sign of emotional
immaturity, akin to judging a programmer by the posture they use
while typing. The people I know who are the best in this (and any
other) field are those who enjoy it, and stodgy "professionalism"
attitude is, in my experience, held by the minority, not the majority,
of them.
Ken
~e
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