The humble programmer
Edsger W. Dijkstra · Communications of the ACM · 1972
Communications of the ACMI was supposed to study theoretical physics at the University of Leiden simultaneously, and as I found the two activities harder and harder ,to combine, I had to make up my mind, either to stop programming and become a real, respectable theoretical physicist, or to carry my study of physics to a formal completion only, with a minimum of effort, and to become..., yes what?A programmer?But was that a respectable profession?After all, what was programming?Where was the sound body of knowledge that could sup-