[mlajtos]

> Maybe, given the lens, I've not given Dijkstra a proper chance to demonstrate a more positive attitude, so I'm open to any suggestions of writings where he doesn't seem like such a grump.

Kinda hard to find where Dijkstra praised something (except Algol 60).

One funny example: he called FORTRAN "an infantile disorder", though he said this about the team behind it: "At that time this was a project of great temerity and the people responsible for it deserve our great admiration.".

On LISP: "LISP has jokingly been described as 'the most intelligent way to misuse a computer'. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts."

Alan Kay on Dijkstra: "Arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-dijkstras."

[layer8]

Alan Kay elaborating on that quote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11796557#11799963

“This quote keeps on showing up out of context. […]”

[tristramb]

"Kinda hard to find where Dijkstra praised something (except Algol 60)."

Hamilton Richards, who was one of Dijkstra's colleagues at the University of Texas, told me in an email that Dijkstra was impressed by the work of Richard Bird on functional programming.

[mlajtos]

Interesting. Bird-Meertens formalism? That was directly influenced by APL. In the broader scope — algebra of programs — Dijkstra heavily disliked Backus’ FP.