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∂AIL Professor Edsger Dijkstra↓Plataanstrat 5↓NL-4565 NEUNEN↓The Netherlands∞
Dear Professor Dijkstra:

.NOJUST
	Zohar Manna showed me your letter of 26 July.  I am sorry you
"vehemently abhor" computer produced manuscripts in different type fonts.
I wish our xerographic printer had higher resolution and didn't make
smudges when it hasn't recently been adjusted;
we do the best we can.  You are entitled to your tastes, but when
you claim that people with different tastes are using computers
to "degrade our lives", you are contributing to an atmosphere of
snobbery that has done much to degrade discussion of programming
style.  Consider this also a protest against the language used
in your campaign against %3goto%1s.  (Sorry our boldface isn't bolder).

	As the inventor of one of the first languages (LISP) that
allowed programming without %3goto%1s, I nevertheless consider
that they have their uses.  However, my main objection is to the
character of the campaign you launched against them, which seemed to
be based on an appeal to snobbery and seemed to encourage more
snobbery.
.ADJUST

	As you see, justified right margins are optional in
computer produced documents.  Many people share your preference
for unjustified lines, but it is wrong to make a moral issue of it.
As a matter of taste, I find the backwards words %3fi%1 and %3od%1
unpleasing and would prefer parentheses or %3begin%1s and %3end%1s
for resolving ambiguities.

	I am glad you like the content of Manna's and Waldinger's
report.  Manna would be an excellent expositor even if his reports
had to be incised in clay tablets and baked, but the polished style
and the prompt appearance may owe something to the opportunity for
frequent revision afforded by computer produced documents.
Certainly, this was one of our main reasons for pioneering them at
this laboratory.  Moreover, we cannot afford the secretarial time
required to make several versions of a typescript.

	If you felt like distributing this protest to your EWD list,
I would be grateful.

.sgn