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How Dutch Informatics fell between two chairs.

	In the late fifties the late prof. dr. H. D. Kloosterman
proudly declared that "being a mathematician, he knew
of course nothing about computers." It is sad, but
the Dutch mathematical community as a whole still
feels that way. When almost all your best brains ignore
a topic, the consequence is obvious : as a result of
the mathematical neglect, Dutch computing science
is largely populated by second- and third-rate
people. It is now so repellent that it is very hard
to see how we could ever dig ourselves out of
that hole again : it is very hard to convince a
bright youngster that he should join that miserable crowd !

	The terrible consequence was that after World War II
our electrical engineering wasn't ready either. We
had one very pragmatic department. where heavy
electrical engineering had the longest tradition,
where electronics had not dissociated itself yet
from "the radio hobbyist" - by way of analogy : think
what happens to a department off mathematics
where students only enrol because they are so fond
of playing chess ! - , and where the electro-mechanical
telephone exchange was their only connection to
anything digital.

	That was a false start. In their unscientific
minds they have now, 35 years later, still not made

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a clear separation between the electronic problem
of how to simulate a discrete automaton with
the analogue means at their disposal, and the
non-electronic problem ( which they had better
leave alone, but don't ) of how to reason effectively
about a large, discrete universe. As a
result the Dutch electronic engineer can cope with
neither of the two problems successfully. The
collapse of the Dutch computer industry is a
direct consequence of his incompetence - that
this was caused by suddenly changing market
situations is only eyewash - and the telecommunication
industry is soon to follow.

	The trouble is that you cannot tell this in my
country. It makes the mathematicians feel uneasy,
perhaps even guilty, and the electronic engineers
feel just offended ; everybody gets only cross
with you, instead of doing something about it.

	Can anyone tell me how to suffer fools
gladly when I see the havoc they make ?


	Plataanstraat 5		9th January 1980
	5671 AL NUENEN		prof. dr. Edsgar W.Dijkstra
	The Netherlands		Burroughs Research Fellow