FOM: Death of Edsger Dijkstra

[Steve Stevenson]

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."