Dijkstra wrote the best takedown of vibe coding OVER FOUR DECADES AGO:
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
April 3, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Dijkstra wrote the best takedown of vibe coding OVER FOUR DECADES AGO:
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
Emily Wilding Davison is known as the Suffragette who died throwing herself in front of to the King's horse at the 1923 Derby. Prior to that, she had been arrested nine times and been on hunger strike seven times in support of a woman's right to vote.
March 31, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Emily Wilding Davison is known as the Suffragette who died throwing herself in front of to the King's horse at the 1923 Derby. Prior to that, she had been arrested nine times and been on hunger strike seven times in support of a woman's right to vote.
Fascinating read from Dijkstra from 1978 (while ignoring some other annoying stuff in there): www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr... "when judging the relative merits of programming languages, some still seem to equate "the ease of programming" with the ease of making undetected mistakes."
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
April 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Fascinating read from Dijkstra from 1978 (while ignoring some other annoying stuff in there): www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr... "when judging the relative merits of programming languages, some still seem to equate "the ease of programming" with the ease of making undetected mistakes."
"I suspect that machines to be programmed in our native tongues -- be it Dutch, English, American, French, German, or Swahili -- are as damned difficult to make as they would be to use." - Edsger Dijkstra www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
January 21, 2026 at 7:03 PM
"I suspect that machines to be programmed in our native tongues -- be it Dutch, English, American, French, German, or Swahili -- are as damned difficult to make as they would be to use." - Edsger Dijkstra www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
A corrective to this perspective is in Edgar Dijkstra's essay, On the foolishness of "natural language programming".
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
He points out that reducing the human labour at work in remembering formal language syntaxes creates other work elsewhere in many places.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
He points out that reducing the human labour at work in remembering formal language syntaxes creates other work elsewhere in many places.
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
June 12, 2026 at 7:04 AM
A corrective to this perspective is in Edgar Dijkstra's essay, On the foolishness of "natural language programming".
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
He points out that reducing the human labour at work in remembering formal language syntaxes creates other work elsewhere in many places.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
He points out that reducing the human labour at work in remembering formal language syntaxes creates other work elsewhere in many places.
been reading dijkstra's "the humble programmer" and it feels very prescient
despite talking about a whole different software crisis
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
despite talking about a whole different software crisis
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The Humble Programmer (EWD 340)
www.cs.utexas.edu
August 28, 2026 at 3:01 PM
been reading dijkstra's "the humble programmer" and it feels very prescient
despite talking about a whole different software crisis
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
despite talking about a whole different software crisis
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
And the obligatory Dijkstra:
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
June 3, 2025 at 2:32 AM
And the obligatory Dijkstra:
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
July 17, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Recommended weekend reading. "The end of Computing Science?", Dijkstra, Nov 2000
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W. Dijkstra Archive: The end of Computing Science? (EWD1304)
www.cs.utexas.edu
September 26, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Recommended weekend reading. "The end of Computing Science?", Dijkstra, Nov 2000
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
the banal truth is that billions of dollars have spent over decades trying to deskill us. maybe LLMs will be what does it (but i doubt it www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...) and marxists are mad because we blow a giant hole in their theory
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
May 9, 2025 at 4:28 AM
the banal truth is that billions of dollars have spent over decades trying to deskill us. maybe LLMs will be what does it (but i doubt it www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...) and marxists are mad because we blow a giant hole in their theory
Dijkstra had a spicy take, way before LLMs, and much of what he says there just makes sense, especially when it comes to nondeterminism vs. robustness: www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
October 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Dijkstra had a spicy take, way before LLMs, and much of what he says there just makes sense, especially when it comes to nondeterminism vs. robustness: www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
In Schwerin liefert eine deutschlandweit einzigartige #Geothermie -Anlage mithilfe von #Wärmepumpen grüne Wärme für das städtische #Fernwärmenetz.
Wie genau? Darum geht's in der neuen Ausgabe unseres Newsletters '#Energiewende Direkt'.
➡️ Jetzt reinlesen: www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
Wie genau? Darum geht's in der neuen Ausgabe unseres Newsletters '#Energiewende Direkt'.
➡️ Jetzt reinlesen: www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
February 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In Schwerin liefert eine deutschlandweit einzigartige #Geothermie -Anlage mithilfe von #Wärmepumpen grüne Wärme für das städtische #Fernwärmenetz.
Wie genau? Darum geht's in der neuen Ausgabe unseres Newsletters '#Energiewende Direkt'.
➡️ Jetzt reinlesen: www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
Wie genau? Darum geht's in der neuen Ausgabe unseres Newsletters '#Energiewende Direkt'.
➡️ Jetzt reinlesen: www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
1978
> E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667) www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
> E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667) www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
March 22, 2026 at 2:14 AM
1978
> E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667) www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
> E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667) www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
The EWD! So clever!
March 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM
The EWD! So clever!
This is exactly what Dijkstra meant when he said:
> When all is said and told, the "naturalness" with which we use our native tongues boils down to the ease with which we can use them for making statements the nonsense of which is not obvious.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
> When all is said and told, the "naturalness" with which we use our native tongues boils down to the ease with which we can use them for making statements the nonsense of which is not obvious.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
E.W.Dijkstra Archive: On the foolishness of "natural language programming". (EWD 667)
www.cs.utexas.edu
April 9, 2026 at 10:51 PM
This is exactly what Dijkstra meant when he said:
> When all is said and told, the "naturalness" with which we use our native tongues boils down to the ease with which we can use them for making statements the nonsense of which is not obvious.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
> When all is said and told, the "naturalness" with which we use our native tongues boils down to the ease with which we can use them for making statements the nonsense of which is not obvious.
www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcr...
#Erneuerbare sind mittlerweile die wichtigste Stromquelle. Aber wie hoch ist ihr Anteil am gesamten Energieverbrauch? Und wie viele Tonnen Treibhausgasemissionen werden durch Erneuerbare vermieden? Alle Zahlen: In der neuen Ausgabe von #Energiewende Direkt.
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Navigati...
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Navigati...
March 24, 2025 at 5:01 PM
#Erneuerbare sind mittlerweile die wichtigste Stromquelle. Aber wie hoch ist ihr Anteil am gesamten Energieverbrauch? Und wie viele Tonnen Treibhausgasemissionen werden durch Erneuerbare vermieden? Alle Zahlen: In der neuen Ausgabe von #Energiewende Direkt.
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Navigati...
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Navigati...
Immer mehr Menschen nutzen Balkonkraftwerke. Rund 800.000 sind in Deutschland bereits in Betrieb. Aber wie funktionieren sie eigentlich? Und was gilt es zu beachten? Antworten darauf gibt der neue Newsletter "Energiewende Direkt" 👉
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
February 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Immer mehr Menschen nutzen Balkonkraftwerke. Rund 800.000 sind in Deutschland bereits in Betrieb. Aber wie funktionieren sie eigentlich? Und was gilt es zu beachten? Antworten darauf gibt der neue Newsletter "Energiewende Direkt" 👉
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
www.bmwk-energiewende.de/EWD/Redaktio...
