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You got me. Genuinely thought it was gonna be a critique.


So what is it? I'm on my phone and don't feel like downloadig a random PDF just for curiosity...


It's a pun. "Go 2" -> "Go To". Dijkstra coined "considered harmful" with the paper (letter) on "Go To statement considered harmful".


It was actually Niklaus Wirth (designer of Pascal and other languages) who coined "considered harmful":

> In 1968 the Communications of the ACM published a text of mine under the title "The goto statement considered harmful, which in later years would be most frequently referenced, regrettably, however, often by authors who had seen no more of it than its title, which became a cornerstone of my fame by becoming a templace: we would see all sorts of articles under the title 'X considered harmful' for almost any X, including one titled "Dijkstra considered harmful."

> But what had happened? I had submitted a paper under the title "A case against the goto statement, which in order to speed up its publication, the editor had changed into a 'Letter to the Editor', and in the process he had given it a new title of his own invention! The editor was Niklaus Wirth".

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/08/edsger_dijkstra_rip...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful


I seem to remember seeing a few articles about "'$X considered harmful' considered harmful'.

Also: Why Functional Programming Matters

and

Why Why Functional Programming Matters Matters

Edit: Just saw the sibling comment by Stratoscope:

"we would see all sorts of articles under the title 'X considered harmful' for almost any X, including one titled "Dijkstra considered harmful."

:)


And this classic by Scott Meyers of Effective C++ fame:

"Considered Harmful" Essays Considered Harmful

https://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html


Thanks, will check that out. I really liked the Effective C++ book by Scott.

There's a good video talk by him titled something like "The Last Thing D Needs".


> Edgar Dijkstra: Go To Statement Considered Harmful


Edsger, nog Edgar (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/)

Dijkstra would lambast you for that error :-)


He probably would :)

But I just quoted the linked PDF a few comments above in the chain.


Dijkstra's critique of the `goto` statement




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