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Dijkstra's 1978 critique of natural language programming resurfaces

Original: The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978)

Edsger W. Dijkstra's 1978 essay arguing against the idea of programming in natural language is drawing renewed attention. In the text he contends that natural language is too ambiguous and imprecise to serve as a programming medium, and that formal notation is essential to rigorous computing. The piece is prompting discussion about whether his arguments still hold in the era of AI-assisted, prompt-based coding.

Why now: Debates over programming in plain English with modern AI tools have made Dijkstra's classic counterargument newly relevant.

Edsger W. DijkstraUniversity of Texas at Austin

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• The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978) · xiaoyu2006 · 383

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