Edsger W. Dijkstra

Lore & Background

Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Dijkstra studied mathematics and physics and then theoretical physics at the University of Leiden. Adriaan van Wijngaarden offered him a job as the first computer programmer in the Netherlands at the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam, where he worked from 1952 until 1962. He formulated and solved the shortest path problem in 1956, and in 1960 developed the first compiler for the programming language ALGOL 60 in conjunction with colleague Jaap A. Zonneveld. In 1962 he moved to Eindhoven, and later to Nuenen, where he became a professor in the Mathematics Department at the Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven. In the late 1960s, he built the THE multiprogramming system, which influenced the designs of subsequent systems through its use of software-based paged virtual memory. Dijkstra joined Burroughs Corporation as its sole research fellow in August 1973. The Burroughs years saw him at his most prolific in output of research articles. He wrote nearly 500 documents in the "EWD" series, most of them technical reports, for private circulation within a select group. Dijkstra accepted the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, working in Austin, USA, until his retirement in November 1999. He and his wife returned from Austin to his original house in Nuenen, where he died on 6 August 2002 after a long struggle with cancer. He received the 1972 ACM Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing structured programming languages. Shortly before his death, he received the ACM PODC Influential Paper Award in distributed computing for his work on self-stabilization of program computation. This annual award was renamed the Dijkstra Prize the following year, in his honor.

Reader's Guide

Dijkstra was born in Rotterdam. His father Douwe Wybe Dijkstra (1898–1970) was a chemist who studied with Frans Maurits Jaeger and was president of the Rotterdamsche Chemische Kring; he taught chemistry at a secondary school and was later its superintendent. His mother Brechtje Cornelia Kluijver (1900–1994) was a mathematician but never had a formal job. After graduating from Gymnasium Erasmianum in 1948, at his parents' suggestion he studied mathematics and physics and then theoretical physics at the University of Leiden. In the early 1950s, he met Adriaan van Wijngaarden, who offered him a job; he officially became the Netherlands' first "programmer" in March 1952. He completed his study of physics formally. When Dijkstra married Maria "Ria" C. Debets in 1957, he stated his profession as programmer, which was unacceptable to the authorities. In 1959, he received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam for a thesis entitled 'Communication with an Automatic Computer'. From 1952 until 1962, Dijkstra worked at the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam, where he worked closely with Bram Jan Loopstra and Carel S. Scholten. Dijkstra formulated and solved the shortest path problem for a demonstration at the official inauguration of the ARMAC computer in 1956. At the Mathematical Centre, Dijkstra and his colleague Jaap Zonneveld developed the first compiler for ALGOL 60 by August 1960. In 1962, Dijkstra moved to Eindhoven, and later to Nuenen, where he became a professor in the Mathematics Department at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In the late 1960s, he built the THE operating system. Dijkstra joined the Burroughs Corporation as its research fellow in August 1973. He was the only research fellow of Burroughs and worked for it from home. He reduced his appointment at the university to one day a week. That day, Tuesday, soon became known as the 'Tuesday Afternoon Club'. Shortly after, he moved in 1984 to the University of Texas at Austin, where a new 'branch' of the Tuesday Afternoon Club emerged. The Burroughs years saw him at his most prolific in output of research articles. He wrote nearly 500 documents in the EWD series.

Did You Know?

• Dijkstra formulated and solved the shortest path problem in 1956 for a demonstration at the official inauguration of the ARMAC computer.
• He developed the first compiler for ALGOL 60 in August 1960 with Jaap Zonneveld.
• He was the sole research fellow of Burroughs Corporation, working from his home in Nuenen.
• The annual ACM PODC Influential Paper Award was renamed the Dijkstra Prize after his death.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, programmer, software engineer, and science essayist." — Edsger W. Dijkstra "Dijkstra (1968) "A Case against the GO TO Statement" cited in: Bill Curtis (1981) Tutorial, human factors in software development. p. 109." — Edsger W. Dijkstra "A convincing demonstration of correctness being impossible as long as the mechanism is regarded as a black box, our only hope lies in not regarding the mechanism as a black box." — Edsger W. Dijkstra "Dijkstra (1970) "Notes On Structured Programming" (EWD249), Section 3 ("On The Reliability of Mechanisms"), p. 5." — Edsger W. Dijkstra