A group for reading thoughtful works in the fields of Computer Science and Software Engineering, to improve our craft and our wisdom.
The next discussion will be on 2026-11-17.
Programming As Theory Building - Peter Naur | 2026-11-03
In Naur's view, programming consists of building a theory of the program. What he means by theory does not consist of speculation but a working knowledge that cannot be transferred from programmer to programmer without some loss.
Computer Programming As An Art - Donald Knuth | 2026-10-20
According to Knuth, programming itself is an art. This was his Turing Award reception speech. He discusses the several senses of the word "art", and finally builds an argument for why programming can be called beautiful. He also expresses that artisan programmers may be better at their jobs.
The Threats To Computing Science - E.W. Dijkstra | 2026-10-06
Dijkstra is highly concerned about the trend he sees in the computing community, to focus on the hardware over the software, and to chase worthless goals. Furthermore, he worries over the existential threat to computing which consists of the hopes and dreams of all humanity: eternal life and infinte wealth.