Unverified50% confidenceFactExact time
Edsger W. Dijkstra wrote a short piece titled "On the foolishness of 'natural language programming'" in 1978, numbered EWD667.
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10/23/2026
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UnverifiedSome commenters believe that when Dijkstra was writing, machines' ability to understand natural language was essentially zero, whereas today large models can handle ambiguity and context to a considerable degree, so EWD667 criticizes "treating natural language as a substitute," and the more realistic current approach is "natural language as the interface, formal verification as the safeguard."66% similarUnverifiedThe core argument of EWD667 is that natural language is vague, ambiguous and context-dependent, whereas programs require precise, unambiguous, mechanically executable instructions, so treating natural language as a programming language is a misunderstanding of the nature of programming.65% similarUnverifiedDiogo believes coding agents are good at syntax, know some semantics, but are extremely poor at architecture.61% similarUnverifiedWhat Dijkstra opposed was using natural language itself as a programming language, not describing requirements in natural language.59% similarUnverifiedBrainfuck语言于1984年诞生，用8个字符构成图灵完备语言55% similar
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