Considered Harmful
Future of Coding
Analyzing Dijkstra's 'Go To Considered Harmful'
A discussion about Dijkstra's influential paper 'Go To Considered Harmful', its brevity, and its impact on the tech world. The hosts also mention other 'considered harmful' papers and express their opinions on the concept.
Go To Statement Considered Harmful is a solid classic entry in the X Considered Harmful metafiction genre, authored by renowned computer scientist and idiosyncratic grump, Edsger Wybe Dijkstra. Surprisingly (given the impact it's had) this is a minuscule speck of a paper, lasting only 1-ish pages, and it even digresses several times from the main point. Fear not! Jimmy and I spend the entirety of these two podcast hours thoroughly analyzing the paper, wringing every last drop of insight from it, speaking directly to how programming ought to be reimagined from the molten venture capital core on up. Yes indeed, this is another episode in the fine tradition of Future of Coding where we stay faithfully close to the text, we leave the second-order implications alone, and there's nothing more than that. Nothing portended, nothing changed.
Links
- Hest, which Jimmy is convinced that I refuse to call by name, or even talk about. He's clearly mistaken — and yet, I feel his philosophical force on my hand even now. Conundrum considered harmful.
- "All Cretans are liars" doesn't have quite the ring of "dipping their breasts into the ripper", and is considered harmful.
- Dijkstra's The Humble Programmer considered harmful.
- Hoare's The Emperor's Old Clothes considered harmful.
- Letter O Considered Harmful considered harmful.
- “Considered Harmful” Essays Considered Harmful considered harmful! Scolds!
- James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher considered considered considered considered considered considered considered considered harmful.
- Proximity to Chomsky considered harmful.
- Interlisp, an early lisp featuring the ] super paren, considered harmful.
- The opening segment of the "I Want to Half-Believe" episode of Very Bad Wizards considered harmful.
- The Witness considered harmful to our show notes.
- Delimited Continuations considered harmful.
- Notation as a Tool of Thought by "Kenneth E. Iverson considered harmful."
- The Zen of Python considered a great honking idea.
- Chunky Bacon considered harmful.
- Copilot considered harmful.
- Charles Babbage's Bridgewater Treatises considered harmful.
- North & Whitehead's Principia Mathematica considered harmful.
- The Sailor's Chorus from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman considered harmful.
- PEP 8 considered harmful.
- There are dozens of us considered harmful.
- TC39 actually considered harmful.
- Bifunctors considered harmful.
- Chocolate
- Radiolab considered one of the only good radio shows, because it's pushing hard against the norms of its medium.
- UBI — consider it!
- Forking The Queen considered harmful.
- The Semantics of Graphical Languages, the paper about a visual formalism for visual programs, considered harmful.
Music featured in this episode:
- Lemon
- Wagner
- Lu, Devine, William, Alex and Alex, Justin, Marcel, Peter, Matt, Blaine, Kevin, Nicki, Mae, Kate, Steve, Mitja, Philippa, Max, and everyone else who secretly said it like a swearword.
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