"[A]lthough the programmer's activity ends when he has constructed a correct program, the process taking place under control of his program is the true subject matter of his activity, for it is this process that has to accomplish the desired effect; it is this process that in its dynamic behavior has to satisfy the desired specifications. Yet, once the program has been made, the 'making' of the corresponding process is delegated to the machine." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra, "Go To Statement Considered Harmful", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 11, No. 3, March 1968, pp. 147-148 [the system calendar file on the machine where I run my QotD script gives the publication date as 1968-03-09]
[Hmm. Perhaps I should have tried to find out whether Dijkstra ever wrote anything for or against Daylight Spending Time ( . . .) which, in the US, started this morning.]
(no subject)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA...that's when the programmer's activity begins. Next comes the endless rounds of bug fixes, customers going "Well, even though the spec said this, it should do that", more bug fixes, customers going "Now we want it to do this that we never discussed during requirements", etc. etc.
The programmer's activity never ends.