Semaphores are woefully too low-level mechanisms of synchronization; you have to be Dijkstra to always use them correctly. Most programmers aren't; Dijkstra's solution to that was "poor mathematicians should stay pure mathematicians", and he lamented that "the computer science current goal seems to be 'how to help programmers write programs even if they can't actually program'" (paraphrased). Well, guess what: he was wrong. Empirically.
And I know the quote's context, thank you. You may too if you want to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11799963 . So I guess I'll follow his lead: Dijkstra may have very good ideas about some technical particulars but his opinions on how programming as a discipline should be approached was simply wrong, and we can and should ignore them.
And I know the quote's context, thank you. You may too if you want to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11799963 . So I guess I'll follow his lead: Dijkstra may have very good ideas about some technical particulars but his opinions on how programming as a discipline should be approached was simply wrong, and we can and should ignore them.