He was a troll back then, too. Alan Kay used to joke that arrogance in computer science is measured in nanodijkstras. EWD could back it up because he was a genius, but it didn't win him friends.
Either way, some of the aphorisms are less defensible now. 35 years later, if something so broadly useful as programming remains "one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics", then I think we have failed our responsibility to move the science forward.
Either way, some of the aphorisms are less defensible now. 35 years later, if something so broadly useful as programming remains "one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics", then I think we have failed our responsibility to move the science forward.