Dijkstra's Scathing Reviews of the Ada Language Proposals

Edsger Dijkstra, Turing Award winner, reviewed four proposals for the Ada programming language (red, green, blue, and yellow). He called the red proposal 'both advanced and backward in such an incongruous manner that I am baffled'. The green proposal was deemed to show 'technical incompetence, probably enhanced by dishonesty'. The blue proposal was 'unacceptably complex', with documentation described as an 'inextricable mixture of technical documentation and sales talk'. Ultimately, Dijkstra famously worried about Western security relying on the winning green proposal, even suggesting he'd feel safer if the Soviet Red Army adopted it instead. This anecdote highlights Dijkstra's unwavering commitment to rigorous technical standards and clear design in software engineering.