Yhn LifeFood first seen 4 d ago, last 2 min ago, peak #1

Dijkstra's 1978 essay on natural language programming resurfaces

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

Edsger W. Dijkstra's 1978 essay 'The foolishness of natural language programming' is drawing renewed attention online. In it the Dutch computer scientist argued against the idea that programming languages should resemble human language, warning of the ambiguity inherent in natural language. Readers are debating whether his warnings hold up in the era of large language models and code generation.

Why now: The essay is being discussed again amid current interest in AI tools that let people program in natural language.

Edsger W. DijkstraUniversity of Texas at Austin

Open on hn →

Rank over time, top of the chart is #1. 13 snapshots from 5 h ago to 2 min ago.

Evidence

• The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978) · xiaoyu2006 · 388

API: https://socialmediatrends-api.osmike.com/v1/trends/3304244