The Computing Scientist's Main Challenge Is Not

Progress Is Possible Only If We Train Ourselves To Think About Programs Without Thinking Of Them As Pieces Of Executable Code.

Fortran, The Infantile Disorder, By Now Nearly 20 Years Old, Is Hopelessly Inadequate For Whatever Computer Application You Have In Mind Today: It Is Now Too Clumsy, Too Risky, And Too Expensive To Use.

I Would Therefore Like To Posit That Computing's Central Challenge, How Not To Make A Mess Of It, Has Not Yet Been Met.

When We Had No Computers, We Had No Programming Problem Either. When We Had A Few Computers, We Had A Mild Programming Problem. Confronted With Machines A Million Times As Powerful, We Are Faced With A Gigantic Programming Problem.

The Computing Scientist's Main Challenge Is Not To Get Confused By The Complexities Of His Own Making.