Edsger W.Dijkstra - How do we tell truths that might hurt?
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe first time I read this, I laughed. The second time, I cried. Sure, there are some pretty funny (and clever) thoughts here. The quote about COBOL is priceless. But this... 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. FWIW, I have written over 1 million lines of BASIC for over 100 customers, most of it still it production…
> The use of anthropomorphic terminology when dealing with computing systems is a symptom of professional immaturity. Fuck all the way off with this "truth!" So much coding is made more enjoyable and profitable by people having fun like this. KoboldAI is one of my favorite projects, and like it or not, attention is driven to projects that are cute and lever human perception for their benefit. Mascots are even an important part of whether a technology becomes popular or…
original paper: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd04xx/EWD498.PDF
Not sure I agree on Pl/1 I found it easy to work with. I used to work with a a DBA whose first boss was Dijkstra
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 166
- Total comments
- 132
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-09-16 | How do we tell truths that might hurt? | yarapavan | 3 | 0 |
| 2011-03-02 | Edsger W.Dijkstra - How do we tell truths that might hurt?First breakout · Best thread | dhotson | 76 | 74 |
| 2011-08-23 | How do we tell truths that might hurt? | shawndumas | 2 | 1 |
| 2014-02-27 | Dijkstra: How do we tell truths that might hurt? | jw2013 | 1 | 3 |
| 2018-07-26 | Edsger Dijkstra: How do we tell truths that might hurt? | devy | 4 | 0 |
| 2021-06-24 | How do we tell truths that might hurt? (1975) | mooreds | 4 | 0 |
| 2025-03-11 | How do we tell truths that might hurt? (1975)Latest 20+ point return | pcfwik | 76 | 54 |