n the first footnote of a 1956 article in the Journal of Symbolic Logic, Robin Gandy notes that Alan Turing always spoke of the axiom of extensionalityas being 'the nigger in the woodpile'. [3]
The computing scientist E. W. Dijkstra also used the phrase in a paper, where he said, "A main nigger in the woodpile is the invention —in Europe— and the subsequent proliferation —primarily in the USA— of the term 'software engineering'."[4]
A main nigger in the woodpile is the invention --in Europe-- and the subsequent proliferation --primarily in the USA-- of the term "software engineering". The existance of the mere term has been the base of a number of extremely shallow --and false-- analogies, which just confuse the issue. In a recent issue of "Daedalus" I read an article by an American sociologist, in which he gave the popular picture of "the engineer". Parochial as sociologists usually are, he gave a very American picture; for me that was in a way illuminating, since, besides the similarities, he also gave me the differences. My conclusion was that the term "software engineering" should never have been coined. The typical engineer is an a-cultural illiterate, unable to absorb or appreciate carefully written prose, equally unable to express himself well, a socially deficient bore, whose primary role in life is to make new gadgets with his hands. (Particularly the "with-his-hands" part is still very dominant --perhaps even more so than in the USA-- in the older European Engineering Departments. Although..... Some time ago a Californian colleague wrote in a technical report that he was tired of proving the correctness of theorems "manually"! Being a little bit old-fashioned, I still use my brains for understanding.)
EJD
