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Thomas E. Kurtz has died

(computerhistory.org)
614 points 1986 | 2 comments | 14 Nov 24 22:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.432s | source
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smarks ◴[15 Nov 24 00:24 UTC] No.42142776[source]▶
Like several others here, my first programming language was BASIC. For this we owe Kurtz a debt of gratitude.

I know Dijkstra is famous for having said that we're mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration, but you know, I kinda think we didn't turn out half bad.

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microtherion ◴[15 Nov 24 01:00 UTC] No.42142995[source]▶
I know literally zero working programmers who learned programming the way Dijkstra thought it should be taught — not even Dijkstra himself, as Donald Knuth once gently pointed out.

Practically everybody in my generation started off with BASIC. On the other hand, at some point (when?), this practice stopped, and the newer generations turned out fine starting out with more civilized languages.

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niteshpant ◴[15 Nov 24 01:52 UTC] No.42143247[source]▶
Consider me naive, but what way did Dijkstra thought it should be taught? Someone who first learned to code in QBASIC
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themadturk ◴[15 Nov 24 02:07 UTC] No.42143332[source]▶
He probably thought programming students should be taught Pascal, the academic language he pioneered. It is quite different from BASIC.
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1. Jtsummers ◴[15 Nov 24 02:08 UTC] No.42143335[source]▶
Pascal was Wirth, not Dijkstra.
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2. themadturk ◴[15 Nov 24 02:25 UTC] No.42143428[source]▶
Sorry, misremembering my meager computing history...