Its called hyperbole. Dijkstra was actually quite fond of that particular figure of speech. He didn't really mean BASIC programmers could never become decent programmers any more than he meant the COBOL teachers should be tried and jailed.
On Oct 2, 11:33 am, Russel Winder <rus...@russel.org.uk> wrote: > On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 07:36 -0700, Cédric Beust ♔ wrote: > > [ . . . ] > > > Basic is definitely not receiving enough credit, in my opinion. > > Actually, it's being unjustly vilified. Who was it again who said that > > anyone who started programming with Basic was irrecoverably corrupt > > and would never become a good programmer? > > Dijkstra, who is both the source of some great things that have > benefited programming and software development, and things that have > acted as barriers holding back software development for decades. > > "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to > students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential > programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of > regeneration." > > "I think of the company advertising 'Thought Processors' or the > college pretending that learning BASIC suffices or at least > helps, whereas the teaching of BASIC should be rated as a > criminal offence: it mutilates the mind beyond recovery." > > > I bet that a lot of people on this list started programming with Basic > > (myself included), and I think we turned out alright :-) > > Hummm... people who started with Basic and yet have become good > programmers in a number of languages must have great powers of recovery > and regeneration. This must mean they are either vampires or trolls ;-) > > -- > Russel. > =========================================================================== == > Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: sip:russel.win...@ekiga.net > 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: rus...@russel.org.uk > London SW11 1EN, UK w:www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder > > signature.asc > < 1KViewDownload -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
