rusi <rustompm...@gmail.com> writes: > The American programmer would profit more from learning Latin than > from learning yet another programming language. > > Edsger Dijkstra in "On the fact that the Atlantic Ocean has two > sides" > > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD611.html
It's ambiguous whether Dijkstra is saying anything positive about Latin there. He could be saying “learning Latin would be a useful thing for average US programmers”. Or he could be saying “learning any second natural human language – even one as useless as Latin – will benefit the average US programmer more than learning another programming language”. I prefer to think someone as wise as Dijkstra would not be deluded as to the value of Latin, and lean more toward the latter meaning. -- \ “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not | `\ entitled to their own facts.” —US Senator Pat Moynihan | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
