History: considered harmful

Source of version: 1 (current)

Yet another allusion to computer lore; in this case, [http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/UTCS/report/1994/profiles/dijkstra.html|Edsgr Dijkstra]'s 1968 notorious polemic paper ''[http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs1104/Introduction/Dijkstra.goto.html|GOTO statement considered harmful]'', which launched a revolution in structured programming. The phrase is used when someone knows they are saying something which may prove portentous --- but is likelier to be regarded as pontifficating. See also Jargon File entry: http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/C/considered-harmful.html