Ebook: Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective

Since the summer of 1973, when I became a Burroughs Research Fellow, my life has been very different from what it had been before. The daily routine changed: instead of going to the University each day, where I used to spend most of my time in the company of others, I now went there only one day a week and was most of the time -that is, when not travelling!- alone in my study. In my solitude, mail and the written word in general became more and more important. The circumstance that my employer and I had the Atlantic Ocean between us was a further incentive to keep a fairly complete record of what I was doing. The public part of that output found its place in what became known as "the EWD series", which can be viewed as a form of scientific correspondence, possible since the advent of the copier. (That same copier makes it hard to estimate its actual distribution: I myself made about two dozen copies of my texts, but their recipients were welcome to act as further nodes of the distribution tree. ) The decision to publish a se1ection from the EWD series in book form was at first highly embarrassing, but as the months went by I got used to the idea. As soon as some guiding principles had been adopted -preferably not published elsewhere, as varied and as representative as possible, etc.

---

---

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvii
Stepwise Program Construction....Pages 1-14
Parallelism in Multi-Record Transactions....Pages 15-21
Finding the Maximum Strong Components in a Directed Graph....Pages 22-30
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Summer School Munich, July 25 to August 4, 1973....Pages 31-33
The Solution to a Cyclic Relaxation Problem....Pages 34-35
Trip Report IBM Seminar “Communication and Computers”, Newcastle, Sept. 1973....Pages 36-40
Self-Stabilization in Spite of Distributed Control....Pages 41-46
Acceptance Speech for the AFIPS Harry Goode Memorial Award 1974....Pages 47-49
Speech at the Occasion of an Anniversary....Pages 50-53
Inside “Mathematics Inc.”....Pages 54-55
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mathematics....Pages 56-59
On the Role of Scientific Thought....Pages 60-66
A Time-Wise Hierarchy Imposed upon the Use of a Two-Level Store....Pages 67-78
A New Elephant Built from Mosquitoes Humming in Harmony....Pages 79-83
Monotonic Replacement Algorithms and Their Implementation....Pages 84-88
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Meeting IFIP W.G.2.3, Munich, 8–14 December 1974....Pages 89-94
Trip Report Visit ETH Zurich, 3–4 February 1975 by E. W. Dijkstra....Pages 95-98
A Letter to My Old Friend Jonathan....Pages 99-103
“Craftsman or Scientist?”....Pages 104-109
Exercises in Making Programs Robust....Pages 110-119
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra 16th April/ 7th May, 1975, U.S.A. and Canada....Pages 120-128
How Do We Tell Truths that Might Hurt?....Pages 129-131
Variations on a Theme: An Open Letter to C. A. R. Hoare....Pages 132-140
A Post-Scriptum to EWD501....Pages 141-144
Erratum and Embellishments of EWD503....Pages 145-146
A Synthesis Emerging?....Pages 147-160
Comments at a Symposium....Pages 161-164
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Newcastle, 8–12 September 1975....Pages 165-168
On a Warning from E. A. Hauck....Pages 169-171
More on Hauck’s Warning....Pages 172-173
A Collection of Beautiful Proofs....Pages 174-183
Mathematics Inc., a Private Letter from Its Chairman....Pages 184-187
A Personal Summary of the Gries—Owicki Theory....Pages 188-199
A “Non Trip Report” from E. W. Dijkstra....Pages 200-204
Formal Techniques and Sizeable Programs....Pages 205-214
An Exercise for Dr. R. M. Burstall....Pages 215-216
A Great Improvement....Pages 217-219
To H. D. Mills, Chairman Software Methodology Panel....Pages 220-222
On Subgoal Induction....Pages 223-224
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, ECI-Conference 9–12 August 1976, Amsterdam....Pages 225-229
More About the Function “fusc” (A Sequel to EWD570)....Pages 230-232
A Proof of a Theorem Communicated to Us by S. Ghosh....Pages 233-234
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Poland and USSR, 4–25 September 1976....Pages 235-244
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Tokyo, 28 Sept-3 Oct. 1976....Pages 245-250
A Parable....Pages 251-252
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, St. Pierre-de-Chartreuse, 12–19 Dec. 1976....Pages 253-258
A Correctness Proof for Communicating Processes: A Small Exercise....Pages 259-263
An Elephant Inspired by the Dutch National Flag....Pages 264-267
On the Fact that the Atlantic Ocean Has Two Sides....Pages 268-276
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Australia, 16 February 1977–21 March 1977....Pages 277-283
A Somewhat Open Letter to EAA or: Why I Proved the Boundedness of the Nondeterminacy in the Way I Did....Pages 284-287
On Webster, Users, Bugs, and Aristotle....Pages 288-291
On Making Solutions More and More Fine-Grained....Pages 292-307
The Mathematics Behind the Banker’s Algorithm....Pages 308-312
On Two Beautiful Solutions Designed by Martin Rem....Pages 313-318
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5–10 Sept. 1977....Pages 319-323
Why Naive Program Transformation Systems Are Unlikely to Work....Pages 324-328
The Three Golden Rules for Successful Scientific Research....Pages 329-330
The Introduction of MAES®....Pages 331-333
A Class of Simple Communication Patterns....Pages 334-337
“Why is Software So Expensive?” An Explanation to the Hardware Designer....Pages 338-348
A Theorem About Odd Powers of Odd Integers....Pages 349-350
Program Inversion....Pages 351-354
On Weak and Strong Termination....Pages 355-357
The Equivalence of Bounded Nondeterminacy and Continuity....Pages 358-359
A Story that Starts with a Very Good Computer....Pages 360-362

---

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvii
Stepwise Program Construction....Pages 1-14
Parallelism in Multi-Record Transactions....Pages 15-21
Finding the Maximum Strong Components in a Directed Graph....Pages 22-30
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Summer School Munich, July 25 to August 4, 1973....Pages 31-33
The Solution to a Cyclic Relaxation Problem....Pages 34-35
Trip Report IBM Seminar “Communication and Computers”, Newcastle, Sept. 1973....Pages 36-40
Self-Stabilization in Spite of Distributed Control....Pages 41-46
Acceptance Speech for the AFIPS Harry Goode Memorial Award 1974....Pages 47-49
Speech at the Occasion of an Anniversary....Pages 50-53
Inside “Mathematics Inc.”....Pages 54-55
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mathematics....Pages 56-59
On the Role of Scientific Thought....Pages 60-66
A Time-Wise Hierarchy Imposed upon the Use of a Two-Level Store....Pages 67-78
A New Elephant Built from Mosquitoes Humming in Harmony....Pages 79-83
Monotonic Replacement Algorithms and Their Implementation....Pages 84-88
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Meeting IFIP W.G.2.3, Munich, 8–14 December 1974....Pages 89-94
Trip Report Visit ETH Zurich, 3–4 February 1975 by E. W. Dijkstra....Pages 95-98
A Letter to My Old Friend Jonathan....Pages 99-103
“Craftsman or Scientist?”....Pages 104-109
Exercises in Making Programs Robust....Pages 110-119
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra 16th April/ 7th May, 1975, U.S.A. and Canada....Pages 120-128
How Do We Tell Truths that Might Hurt?....Pages 129-131
Variations on a Theme: An Open Letter to C. A. R. Hoare....Pages 132-140
A Post-Scriptum to EWD501....Pages 141-144
Erratum and Embellishments of EWD503....Pages 145-146
A Synthesis Emerging?....Pages 147-160
Comments at a Symposium....Pages 161-164
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Newcastle, 8–12 September 1975....Pages 165-168
On a Warning from E. A. Hauck....Pages 169-171
More on Hauck’s Warning....Pages 172-173
A Collection of Beautiful Proofs....Pages 174-183
Mathematics Inc., a Private Letter from Its Chairman....Pages 184-187
A Personal Summary of the Gries—Owicki Theory....Pages 188-199
A “Non Trip Report” from E. W. Dijkstra....Pages 200-204
Formal Techniques and Sizeable Programs....Pages 205-214
An Exercise for Dr. R. M. Burstall....Pages 215-216
A Great Improvement....Pages 217-219
To H. D. Mills, Chairman Software Methodology Panel....Pages 220-222
On Subgoal Induction....Pages 223-224
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, ECI-Conference 9–12 August 1976, Amsterdam....Pages 225-229
More About the Function “fusc” (A Sequel to EWD570)....Pages 230-232
A Proof of a Theorem Communicated to Us by S. Ghosh....Pages 233-234
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Poland and USSR, 4–25 September 1976....Pages 235-244
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Tokyo, 28 Sept-3 Oct. 1976....Pages 245-250
A Parable....Pages 251-252
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, St. Pierre-de-Chartreuse, 12–19 Dec. 1976....Pages 253-258
A Correctness Proof for Communicating Processes: A Small Exercise....Pages 259-263
An Elephant Inspired by the Dutch National Flag....Pages 264-267
On the Fact that the Atlantic Ocean Has Two Sides....Pages 268-276
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Australia, 16 February 1977–21 March 1977....Pages 277-283
A Somewhat Open Letter to EAA or: Why I Proved the Boundedness of the Nondeterminacy in the Way I Did....Pages 284-287
On Webster, Users, Bugs, and Aristotle....Pages 288-291
On Making Solutions More and More Fine-Grained....Pages 292-307
The Mathematics Behind the Banker’s Algorithm....Pages 308-312
On Two Beautiful Solutions Designed by Martin Rem....Pages 313-318
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5–10 Sept. 1977....Pages 319-323
Why Naive Program Transformation Systems Are Unlikely to Work....Pages 324-328
The Three Golden Rules for Successful Scientific Research....Pages 329-330
The Introduction of MAES®....Pages 331-333
A Class of Simple Communication Patterns....Pages 334-337
“Why is Software So Expensive?” An Explanation to the Hardware Designer....Pages 338-348
A Theorem About Odd Powers of Odd Integers....Pages 349-350
Program Inversion....Pages 351-354
On Weak and Strong Termination....Pages 355-357
The Equivalence of Bounded Nondeterminacy and Continuity....Pages 358-359
A Story that Starts with a Very Good Computer....Pages 360-362
....