“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. Dijkstra68
Dutch computer scientist 1930–2002Related quotes
Fernando J. Corbató (1926–2019) American computer scientist
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 80
“Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 588.
Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer
Source: Daughter of the Blood
“The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.”
William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell (1745–1836) British politician
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).
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
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.”
Nick Herbert (1936) American physicist
Source: Quantum Reality - Beyond The New Physics, Chapter 12, Bell's Interconnectedness Theorem, p. 215
Newton Lee American computer scientist
Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015
“Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.”
Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) Italian Dominican friar and preacher
Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 481