Afloyd.202 net.followup utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!trb Thu May 6 14:10:44 1982 Re: Dr. Dijkstra speaks... I like Dr ijk's style, he doesn't mince words. He's trying to get the idea across, and he feels that his elegant straightforward presentation style makes up in power what it lacks in completeness. Imagine: I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree, Well, ya know, I'm not talking about all trees, because some trees aren't really that lovely, and even pretty crufty poems might be as lovely as those. Feh! As far as his opinion on mathematician as hacker, that's out of context. He said that the easiest problems are the technical/scientific ones (the usual realm of the mathematician as hacker.) He talked about having a mathematical inclination. That's not the same as being a mathematician, that's having your head screwed on properly. I got from him that the tools are going to influence the creative abilities of their users. Ask any anthropologist. There are plenty of Neanderthal computer applications out there, designed by Neanderthal programmers with Neanderthal tools. Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491 ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.