[PDF][PDF] On a cultural gap
EW Dijkstra - 1985 - repositories.lib.utexas.edu
EW Dijkstra
1985•repositories.lib.utexas.eduOn the typical university campus, the typical mathematician and the typical computing
scientist live in different worlds: they don't know each other or, if they do, they are not on
speaking terms. The purpose of this essay is two-fold, viz. to give a historical explanation of
this phenomenon and to argue that we should do something about it. Exhorting the world to
mend its ways is always a tricky business, for implicit in the exhortation is always the verdict
that the world's ways leave plenty of room for improvement, a suggestion that is always …
scientist live in different worlds: they don't know each other or, if they do, they are not on
speaking terms. The purpose of this essay is two-fold, viz. to give a historical explanation of
this phenomenon and to argue that we should do something about it. Exhorting the world to
mend its ways is always a tricky business, for implicit in the exhortation is always the verdict
that the world's ways leave plenty of room for improvement, a suggestion that is always …
On the typical university campus, the typical mathematician and the typical computing scientist live in different worlds: they don't know each other or, if they do, they are not on speaking terms. The purpose of this essay is two-fold, viz. to give a historical explanation of this phenomenon and to argue that we should do something about it.
Exhorting the world to mend its ways is always a tricky business, for implicit in the exhortation is always the verdict that the world's ways leave plenty of room for improvement, a suggestion that is always offensive to the touchy. One way of gilding the pill is to qualify one's sentences by all sorts of softeners such as" typical",“in general"," on theaverage"," usually"," not uncommonly", etc., For brevity's sake I shall not do so.
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