On formalisms

Extreme attacks on formalisms overestimate the expressive power of natural language and underestimate the power of formal languages. An overemphasis on the role of human intuition leads to an underemphasis of the value of flexible formalisms in protecting ourselves from human errors. When one uses a computer to solve problems, one builds a theory, a model of the real world, and one should use the mixture of formal and natural language that is most appropriate for the problems to be solved.Dedicated to Peter Naur on the occasion of his 60th birthday