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From: "Robert I. Eachus" <eachus@mitre.org>
Subject: Re: Comments
Date: 1999/10/26
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Ehud Lamm wrote:
 
> This is whole subject is off topic here. But as often mentioned in other
> groups Dijkstra suposedly said that you can tell if someone is a good
> programmer by judging their native language skills.

   Let's not try to make this an urban legend.  He said exactly that.
Well, I think his exact words were: "The best predictor of a student's
success as a software engineer is his skill in using his native native
language."  In any case, he said it at a software engineering conference
in early June 1979--over twenty years ago, ouch!  He also said that if
he was running a school to teach programming, he would tie the student's
hands behind their backs for the first year.

   In the discussion following, Dijkstra pointed out that to be a
compiler developer, you had to speak English, Dutch, German, or Russian
as a young child, even if it was not your "milk tongue."

-- 

                                        Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...