"Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians."
(Edsger W. Dijkstra, EWD498)
Found in some answer to: "Why is writing down mathematical proofs more fault proof than writing computer code?"
@peterluschny Programming in this context is mathematical programming, not computer programming, correct?
@sojournTime
Hard to say in 2 words; It all starts with what is meant by 'mathematical programming' and 'computer programming'. I see it very generally: it's about proving whether something is correct; It doesn't matter whether the object is a mathematical derivation or proof that the specification of an operating system is met. The first case was only recently demonstrated here so wonderfully by Terence Tao. In the second case, teams from Microsoft and Google work behind closed doors (sometimes in joint ventures). [Microsoft is not interested in promoting mathematical science with Lean, if that's what anyone thought.]
@peterluschny What I meant by mathematical programming was optimization (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_optimization). However, I think you're right that the quote is referring to computer programming. I believe this is the letter that contains this quote, in which Dijkstra clearly is referring to computer programming:
https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html
