“How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity —in short: what mathematicians call "elegance"”
are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
1980s
Source: EWD648.
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Edsger W. Dijkstra 68
Dutch computer scientist 1930–2002Related quotes
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 80
“Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.”
Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 588.
“The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.”
As quoted in Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1845) by John Campbell, Vol. x. Chap. 212; this precedes the use by Benjamin Disraeli of "The sweet simplicity of the three per cents", in Endymion (1880).
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 45, “Interlude—Some Tavern Tale” (p. 333)
“The simplicity of Bell's proof opens it to everyone, not just physicists and mathematicians.”
Source: Quantum Reality - Beyond The New Physics, Chapter 12, Bell's Interconnectedness Theorem, p. 215
Source: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015
“Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.”
Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 481