[Monids] [Fwd: Fw: Edsger Dijkstra (fwd)]
Jose Ortiz
cheo@hpcf.upr.edu
Thu, 08 Aug 2002 13:26:18 -0400
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Jose R. Ortiz Ubarri
Cs. Student & Programmer
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Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 11:56:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Zongming Fei <fei@netlab.uky.edu>
To: netlab-users@netlab.uky.edu
Cc: Zongming Fei <fei@netlab.uky.edu>
Subject: Fw: Edsger Dijkstra (fwd)
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I got this from a friend and want to share with admirers of
Prof. Dijkstra.
Zongming Fei
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marsha Chechik" <chechik>
To: <dcsall>
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 11:12 AM
Subject: FORW: Edsger Dijkstra
>
> From: James Caristi <James.Caristi@valpo.edu>
>
> Professor Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, a noted pioneer of the science and
> industry of computing, died after a long struggle with cancer on 6 August
> 2002 at his home in Nuenen, the Netherlands.
>
> Dijkstra was born in 1930 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the son of a
> chemist father and a mathematician mother. He graduated from the
> Gymnasium Erasmianum in Rotterdam and obtained degrees in mathematics and
> theoretical physics from the University of Leyden and a Ph.D. in
> computing science from the University of Amsterdam. He worked as a
> programmer at the Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1952-62; was professor
> of mathematics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 1962-1984; and was a
> Burroughs Corporation research fellow, 1973-1984. He held the
> Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computing Sciences at the University of
> Texas at Austin, 1984-1999, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1999.
>
> Dijkstra is survived by his wife of over forty years, Maria (Ria) C.
> Dijkstra Debets, by three children, Marcus J., Femke E., and computer
> scientist Rutger M. Dijkstra, and by two grandchildren.
>
> Dijkstra was the 1972 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, often viewed as
> the Nobel Prize for computing. He was a member of the Netherlands Royal
> Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts
> and Sciences, and a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society.
> He received the 1974 AFIPS Harry Goode Award, the 1982 IEEE Computer
> Pioneer Award, and the 1989 ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding
> Contributions to Computer Science Education. Athens University of
> Economics awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2001. In 2002, the C&C
> Foundation of Japan recognized Dijkstra "for his pioneering contributions
> to the establishment of the scientific basis for computer software
> through creative research in basic software theory, algorithm theory,
> structured programming, and semaphores".
>
> Dijkstra is renowned for the insight that mathematical logic is and must
> be the basis for sensible computer program construction and for his
> contributions to mathematical methodology. He is responsible for the idea
> of building operating systems as explicitly synchronized sequential
> processes, for the formal development of computer programs, and for the
> intellectual foundations for the disciplined control of nondeterminacy.
> He is well known for his amazingly efficient shortest path algorithm and
> for having designed and coded the first Algol 60 compiler. He was
> famously the leader in the abolition of the GOTO statement from
> programming.
>
> Dijkstra was a prodigious writer. His entire collection of over thirteen
> hundred written works was digitally scanned and is accessible at
> http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD. He also corresponded regularly with
> hundreds of friends and colleagues over the years --not by email but by
> conventional post. He strenuously preferred the fountain pen to the
> computer in producing his scholarly output and letters.
>
> Dijkstra was notorious for his wit, eloquence, and way with words, such
> as in his remark "The question of whether computers can think is like the
> question of whether submarines can swim"; his advice to a promising
> researcher, who asked how to select a topic for research: "Do only what
> only you can do"; and his remark in his Turing Award lecture "In their
> capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our
> culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without
> precedent in the cultural history of mankind."
>
> Dijkstra enriched the language of computing with many concepts and
> phrases, such as structured programming, separation of concerns,
> synchronization, deadly embrace, dining philosophers, weakest
> precondition, guarded command, the excluded miracle, and the famous
> "semaphores" for controlling computer processes. The Oxford English
> Dictionary cites his use of the words "vector" and "stack" in a computing
> context.
>
> Dijkstra enjoyed playing Mozart for his friends on his Boesendorfer
> piano. He and his wife had a fondness for exploring state and national
> parks in their Volkswagen bus, dubbed the Touring Machine, in which he
> wrote many technical papers.
>
> Throughout his scientific career, Dijkstra formulated and pursued the
> highest academic ideals of scientific rigour untainted by commercial,
> managerial, or political considerations. Simplicity, beauty, and
> eloquence were his hallmarks, and his uncompromising insistence on
> elegance in programming and mathematics was an inspiration to thousands.
> He judged his own work by the highest standards and set a continuing
> challenge to his many friends to do the same. For the rest, he willingly
> undertook the role of Socrates, that of a gadfly to society, repeatedly
> goading his native and his adoptive country by remarking on the mistakes
> inherent in fashionable ideas and the dangers of time-serving
> compromises. Like Socrates, his most significant legacy is to those who
> engaged with him in small group discussions or scientific correspondence
> about half-formulated ideas and emerging discoveries. Particularly
> privileged are those who attended his reading groups in Eindhoven and
> Austin, known as the "Tuesday Afternoon Clubs".
>
> At Dijkstra's passage, let us recall Phaedo's parting remark about
> Socrates: "we may truly say that of all the men of his time whom we have
> known, he was the wisest and justest and best."
>
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