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by david927 15 days ago
"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes," Edsger Dijkstra

I always liked that quote because telescopes can introduce artifacts, so astronomers absolutely have to know them in a foundational way, just as the artist needs to know the brush and the canvas.

I don't care for computers and I hate all programming languages but I love computer science.

1 comments

Wasn't that by Abelson/Sussman in SICP lectures, instead of Dijkstra? Or did Abelson/Sussman say that because Dijkstra said it, quoting Dijkstra?
It was famously Dijkstra, so they were almost certainly quoting him. He was responsible for a lot of great aphorisms; I think he was as quotable as he was irascible.