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Dijkstra's 1978 critique of natural language programming resurfaces
Original: The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978)
A 1978 essay by Edsger W. Dijkstra, 'The foolishness of natural language programming', is drawing renewed attention. In it, Dijkstra argued that programming in natural language rather than formal notation is a mistake, since mathematical precision, not human language, is what makes programs reliable. The piece is being widely discussed as debates continue over using plain-language prompts to generate code with AI systems.
Why now: Renewed debate over AI coding by natural language prompts has made Dijkstra's old argument newly relevant.
Edsger W. Dijkstranatural language programmingUniversity of Texas at Austin
Evidence
- The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978) · xiaoyu2006 · 382
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