--- title: Dijkstra on foolishness of Natural Language Programming description: Edsger Dijkstra's critique on natural language programming highlights the challenges and limitations it presents. He argues that programming languages require... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/dijkstra-on-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming-tzpv24mqa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Dijkstra on foolishness of Natural Language Programming | daily.dev og:description: Edsger Dijkstra's critique on natural language programming highlights the challenges and limitations it presents. He argues that programming languages require... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/dijkstra-on-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming-tzpv24mqa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tZPV24MQA.png og:image:alt: Dijkstra on foolishness of Natural Language Programming og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Dijkstra on foolishness of Natural Language Programming **[ThePrimeTime](https://daily.dev/sources/primeagen)** · 18 min read · 31 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Edsger Dijkstra's critique on natural language programming highlights the challenges and limitations it presents. He argues that programming languages require precision and formal symbolism, which natural languages lack. Dijkstra suggests that while natural language programming may seem to simplify coding, it could actually increase complexity for both the programmer and the machine. His insights emphasize the importance of formal, structured programming to avoid errors and inefficiencies. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/dijkstra-on-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming-tzpv24mqa) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Dijkstra on foolishness of Natural Language Programming","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dijkstra-on-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming-tzpv24mqa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/dijkstra-on-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming-tzpv24mqa"},"datePublished":"2025-04-11T17:48:19.044Z","dateModified":"2025-04-11T17:48:31.790Z","description":"Edsger Dijkstra's critique on natural language programming highlights the challenges and limitations it presents. 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