[rramadass]

E.W.Dijkstra was and will always be right;

Electronic engineering can contribute no more than the machinery, and that the general purpose computer is no more than a handy device for implementing any thinkable mechanism without changing a single wire. That being so, the key question is what mechanisms we can think of without getting lost in the complexities of our own making. Not getting lost in the complexities of our own making and preferably reaching that goal by learning how to avoid the introduction of those complexities in the first place, that is the key challenge computing science has to meet. --- The important distinction between "Computing Science" and "Computer Science". The former is what we need to focus on.

Does this overestimation of the usefulness of the gadget hurt computing science? I fear it does. At the one end of the spectrum it discourages the computing scientist from conducting all sorts of notational experiments because "his word-processor won't allow them", at the other end of the spectrum the art-and-science of program design has been overshadowed by the problems of mechanizing program verification. The design of new formalisms, more effective because better geared to our manipulative needs, is neglected because the clumsiness of the current ones is the major motivation for the mechanization of their use. --- The need to focus on better Formal Notations to design "Correctness" into Programs in the first place.