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Encyclopedia > Edsger W. Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

Born May 11, 1930(1930-05-11)
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died August 6, 2002 (aged 72)
Nuenen, Netherlands
Field Computer Science
Institutions Mathematisch Centrum
The University of Texas at Austin
Known for Dijkstra's algorithm
THE multiprogramming system
Semaphore
Notable prizes Turing Award
Association for Computing Machinery

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (May 11, 1930August 6, 2002); IPA: ˈɛtˌsxər ˈwɪbə ˈdɛɪkˌstra) was a Dutch computer scientist. He received the 1972 A. C. M. Turing Award for fundamental contributions in the area of programming languages, and was the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until his death in 2002. Shortly before his death, he received the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) PODC Influential paper award in distributed computing for his paper that started the subarea of self-stabilization. This annual award was renamed the ACM Edsger W. Dijkstra award shortly after Dijkstra's death. Image File history File links Edsger_Dijkstra_large. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Motto: Sterker door strijd (Stronger through Struggle) Location of Rotterdam Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province South Holland Government  - Mayor Ivo Opstelten  - Aldermen Jeannette Baljeu Hamit Karakus Orhan Kaya Lucas Bolsius Jantine Kriens Dominic Schrijer Roelf de Boer Leonard Geluk Area [1]  - City 319 km²  (123. ... is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten is a municipality consisting of the larger village of Nuenen and two adjacent smaller ones. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... The National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (Dutch: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica or CWI) is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and was founded in 1946 by J. G. van der Corput, D. van Dantzig, J. F. Koksma, H. A. Kramers, M. G. J. Minnaert and J. A... The University of Texas at Austin (often referred to as The University of Texas, UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a doctoral/research university located in Austin, Texas. ... Dijkstras algorithm, named after its discoverer, Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra, is a greedy algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a directed graph with non negative edge weights. ... THE is an early computer Operating System, which was designed in 1968. ... A semaphore is a protected variable (or abstract data type) and constitutes the classic method for restricting access to shared resources (e. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet can be used to show pronounciation in English. ... Computer science (informally: CS or compsci) is, in its most general sense, the study of computation and information processing, both in hardware and in software. ... The A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. ... The University of Texas at Austin (often referred to as The University of Texas, UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a doctoral/research university located in Austin, Texas. ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... Self-stabilization is a concept from computer science. ...

Contents

Life

Born in Rotterdam, Dijkstra studied theoretical physics at the University of Leiden, but he quickly realized he was more interested in computer science. Nickname: Motto: Sterker door strijd (Stronger through Struggle) Location of Rotterdam Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province South Holland Government  - Mayor Ivo Opstelten  - Aldermen Jeannette Baljeu Hamit Karakus Orhan Kaya Lucas Bolsius Jantine Kriens Dominic Schrijer Roelf de Boer Leonard Geluk Area [1]  - City 319 km²  (123. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Leiden University in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ...


Originally employed by the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam, he held a professorship at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, worked as a research fellow for Burroughs Corporation in the early 1970s, and later held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, in the United States. He retired in 2000. The National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (Dutch: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica or CWI) is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and was founded in 1946 by J. G. van der Corput, D. van Dantzig, J. F. Koksma, H. A. Kramers, M. G. J. Minnaert and J. A... The Eindhoven University of Technology (in Dutch: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven or TU/e, and formerly Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven or THE) is a technical university located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... William Seward Burroughs (1857-1898), US inventor William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), author and grandson of William Seward Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), American author of Tarzan fame The Burroughs Corporation began in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company in St. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (full official name), often UT or Texas for short, is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System, the largest public university system in Texas, established in 1883. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...


Among his contributions to computer science is the shortest path-algorithm, also known as Dijkstra's algorithm, the THE multiprogramming system, and the semaphore construct, for coordinating multiple processors and programs. Another concept due to Dijkstra in the field of distributed computing is that of self-stabilization - an alternative way to ensure the reliability of the system. Dijkstra's algorithm is used in SPF, Shortest Path First, which is used in the routing protocol OSPF, Open Shortest Path First. In graph theory, the single-source shortest path problem is the problem of finding a path between two vertices such that the sum of the weights of its constituent edges is minimized. ... In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related disciplines, an algorithm is a finite list of well-defined instructions for accomplishing some task that, given an initial state, will terminate in a defined end-state. ... Dijkstras algorithm, named after its discoverer, Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra, is a greedy algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a directed graph with non negative edge weights. ... THE is an early computer Operating System, which was designed in 1968. ... A semaphore is a protected variable (or abstract data type) and constitutes the classic method for restricting access to shared resources (e. ... Self-stabilization is a concept from computer science. ... In computer science, Shortest path first (SPF) is a routing method able to eliminate loops. ... The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol is a hierarchical interior gateway protocol (IGP) for routing in Internet Protocol, using a link-state in the individual areas that make up the hierarchy. ...


He was also known for his low opinion of the GOTO statement in computer programming, culminating in the 1968 article "A Case against the GO TO Statement" (EWD215), regarded as a major step towards the widespread deprecation of the GOTO statement and its effective replacement by structured control constructs such as the while loop. This methodology was also called Structured programming. The paper's more famous title, "Go To Statement Considered Harmful", was not the work of Dijkstra, but of Niklaus Wirth, then editor of Communications of the ACM. Dijkstra was known to be a fan of ALGOL 60, and worked on the team that implemented the first compiler for that language. Dijkstra and Jaap Zonneveld, who collaborated on the compiler, agreed not to shave until the project was completed. Zonneveld eventually shaved off his beard; Dijkstra kept his until his death. GOTO is a statement found in many computer programming languages. ... Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... GOTO is a statement found in many computer programming languages. ... Control Structures: In computer science, structured algorithms are built using control structures. ... In most computer programming languages, a while loop is a control flow statement that allows code to be executed repeatedly based on a given boolean condition. ... Structured programming can be seen as a subset or subdiscipline of procedural programming, one of the major programming paradigms. ... In computer science and related disciplines, considered harmful is a phrase popularly used in the titles of diatribes and other critical essays. ... Niklaus E. Wirth (born February 15, 1934) is a Swiss computer scientist, best known for designing several programming languages, including Pascal, and for pioneering several classic topics in software engineering. ... Communications of the ACM (CACM) is the flagship monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery. ... Algol (β Per / Beta Persei) is a bright star in the constellation Perseus. ... A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language, multi-target compiler. ...


He also wrote two important papers in 1968, devoted to the structure of the multiprogramming systems and to cooperating sequential processes.


He is famed for coining the popular programming phrase "2 or more, use a for", alluding to the fact that when you find yourself processing more than one instance of a data structure, it is time to encapsulate that logic inside a loop.


From the 1970s, Dijkstra's chief interest was formal verification. The prevailing opinion at the time was that one should first write a program and then provide a mathematical proof of correctness. Dijkstra objected that the resulting proofs are long and cumbersome, and that the proof gives no insight as to how the program was developed. An alternative method is program derivation, to "develop proof and program hand in hand". One starts with a mathematical specification of what a program is supposed to do and applies mathematical transformations to the specification until it is turned into a program that can be executed. The resulting program is then known to be correct by construction. Much of Dijkstra's later work concerns ways to streamline mathematical argument. In a 2001 interview, he stated a desire for "elegance", whereby the correct approach would be to process thoughts mentally, rather than attempt to render them until they are complete. The analogy he made was to contrast the compositional approaches of Mozart and Beethoven. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... In the context of hardware and software systems, formal verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property, using formal methods of mathematics. ... In mathematics, a proof is a demonstration that, assuming certain axioms, some statement is necessarily true. ... In theoretical computer science, correctness of an algorithm is asserted when it is said that the algorithm is correct with respect to a specification. ... In computer science, program derivation is the derivation a program from its specification, by mathematical means. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IPA: , baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. ... A portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820 Ludwig van Beethoven (IPA: ), (baptized December 17, 1770[1] – March 26, 1827) was a composer and one of the pillars of European classical music. ...


Dijkstra was known for his essays on programming; he was the first to make the claim that programming is so inherently difficult and complex that programmers need to harness every trick and abstraction possible in hopes of managing the complexity of it successfully. He was also known for his habit of carefully composing manuscripts with his fountain pen. The manuscripts are called EWDs, since Dijkstra numbered them with EWD as prefix. Dijkstra would distribute photocopies of a new EWD among his colleagues; as many recipients photocopied and forwarded their copy, the EWDs spread throughout the international computer science community. The topics are mainly computer science and mathematics, but also include trip reports, letters, and speeches. More than 1300 EWDs have since been scanned, with a growing number also transcribed to facilitate search, and are available online at the Dijkstra archive of the University of Texas[1]. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... A fountain pen is a writing instrument, more specifically a pen, that contains a reservoir of water-based ink that is fed to a nib through a feed via a combination of gravity and capillary action. ...


Dijkstra was one of the very early pioneers of the research on distributed computing. Some people even consider some of his papers to be those that established the field. In particular, his paper "Self-stabilizing Systems in Spite of Distributed Control" started the sub field of Self-stabilization. Self-stabilization is a concept from computer science. ...


Dijkstra was also noted for owning only one computer (late in life) and rarely actually using them, in keeping with his conviction that computer science was more abstract than mere programming, expressed in a number of famous sayings such as "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." "Almost all articles in this series appearing after 1972 are hand-written. Having invented much of the technology of software, Dijkstra eschewed the use of computers in his own work for many decades. Even after he succumbed to his UT colleagues’ encouragement and acquired a Macintosh computer, he used it only for e-mail and for browsing the World Wide Web."[2]


He died in Nuenen, The Netherlands on August 6, 2002 after a long struggle with cancer. The following year, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) PODC Influential Paper Award in distributed computing was renamed the Dijkstra Prize in his honour. Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten is a municipality consisting of the larger village of Nuenen and two adjacent smaller ones. ... Motto: Je Maintiendrai (Dutch: Ik zal handhaven, English: I Shall Uphold) Anthem: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe Capital Amsterdam1 Largest city Amsterdam Official language(s) Dutch2 Government Parliamentary democracy Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Beatrix  - Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende Independence Eighty Years War   - Declared July 26, 1581   - Recognised January 30, 1648 (by Spain... is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... The Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize is a prize for outstanding papers on the principles of distributed computing, named after Edsger W. Dijkstra. ...


Trivia

Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish fantasy writer, used Dijkstra's name for one of the main characters in the five book "Saga" about The Hexer. Andrzej Sapkowski Andrzej Sapkowski, born June 21, 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. ... The Witcher or The Hexer (Polish: Wiedźmin) named Geralt is a character created by Andrzej Sapkowski. ...


See also

Dijkstras algorithm, named after its discoverer, Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra, is a greedy algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a directed graph with non negative edge weights. ... In computer science, the dining philosophers problem is an illustrative example of a common computing problem in concurrency. ... The Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science is a 1988 paper by E. W. Dijkstra, which argues that computer programming should be understood as a branch of mathematics, and that the formal provability of a program is a major criterion for correctness. ... The Shunting yard algorithm is a method for parsing mathematical equations specified in infix notation. ...

Footnotes

  1. ^ University of Texas online EWD archive.
  2. ^ University of Texas, "In Memoriam Edsger Wybe Dijkstra."

References

Writings by E.W. Dijkstra

  • Go To Statement Considered Harmful, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 11 (1968) 147 – 148; online edition (EWD215)
  • How do we tell truths that might hurt? (EWD498)
  • From My Life (EWD166)
  • A Discipline of Programming, Prentice-Hall Series in Automatic Computation, 1976, ISBN 0-13-215871-X
  • Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective, Texts and Monographs in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, 1982, ISBN 0-387-90652-5
  • A Method of Programming, E.W. Dijkstra, W.H.J. Feijen, J. Sterringa, Addison Wesley 1988, ISBN 0-201-17536-3

Communications of the ACM (CACM) is the flagship monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery. ...

Others about Dijkstra, eulogies

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is the file format created by Adobe Systems, in 1993, for document exchange. ... The Formal Aspects of Computing journal is published by Springer-Verlag. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Persondata
NAME Dijkstra, Edsger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Dutch mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotterdam
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 2002
PLACE OF DEATH Nuenen, The Netherlands


 

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