filepath: /home/silas/notes/2025/11/17/013912.md
uid: 8e116eec-3615-40ca-b75c-0ccfa35cc086
slug: 2025/11/17/013912
title: Edsger W. Dijkstra, The Humble Programmer, 1972
category: references
secondary: quotes
available: 2025-11-17 01:39:12
created: 2025-11-17 01:39:12
updated: 2025-11-17 01:39:12
creator: Silas Jelley
description: The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.
layout: default
source:
title: The Humble Programmer
creator: Edsger W. Dijkstra
year: 1972
event: ACM Turing Lecture
via: {'url': 'https://www.zigbook.net/chapters/00__zigbook_introduction'}
words: {'self': 0, 'code': {'lines': 0, 'words': 0}, 'references': 23, 'referenced': 0}
links: {'internal': [], 'external': ['https://www.zigbook.net/chapters/00__zigbook_introduction'], 'backlinks': [], 'assets': {}}