This is a really off color remark for an author of "Coders at work".
Dijkstra was probably amongst the first European coders and wrote the earliest operating systems.
If you read knuths remarks, he just has a difference of opinion, but the final conclusion is the same. The theory of algorithms is more important particular language or implementation details.
EDIT: Case in point, I learned my first language Pascal programming for 6 months without a computer.
This is a really off color remark for an author of "Coders at work".
Dijkstra was probably amongst the first European coders and wrote the earliest operating systems.
If you read knuths remarks, he just has a difference of opinion, but the final conclusion is the same. The theory of algorithms is more important particular language or implementation details.
EDIT: Case in point, I learned my first language Pascal programming for 6 months without a computer.