Edsger W. Dijkstra Numbered Documents

Documents 498 and 594 have been included as samples with minimal editing. These documents are not necessarily representative of the collection. Page numbers of the original text remain. Aside from notation on a mispelled word and a handwritten addition the documents remain as Dijkstra created them.

Dijkstra Numbered Documents Listing

Letters to Myself (Document # 249)
A short introduction to the Art of Programming (Document # 316)
Parallellism in Multi-record Transactions (Document # 338)
A Simple Axiomatic Basis for Programming Language Constructs (Document # 372)
On a connection pattern between IN elements (Document # 379)
Executional abstraction (Document # 383)
The role of programming language (Document # 384)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra Summer School Munich 7/28-8/4/73 (Document # 385)
Trip report IBM Seminar "Communication & Computers," Newcastle 9/73 (Document # 387)
Trip report I.U.C.C. Colloquium, Canterbury, 18-21st 9/73 (Document # 389)
Self-stabilization in spite of distributed control (Document # 391)
Self-stabilization with four-state machines (Document # 392)
On representational abstraction (Document # 393)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra IFIP Working Group W.G.2.3 "On Programming Methodology" Oct. 21 - 26, 1973, Blanchland, England (Document # 395)
Self-stabilization with three-state machines (Document # 396)
Self-stabilizing systems with distributed control (Document # 397)
Sequencing primitives revisited (Document # 398)
An immediate sequel to EWD 398 "Sequencing primitives revisited" (Document # 399)
States and their characterization (Document # 400)
The characterization of semantics (Document # 401)
The characterization of semantics, replaces EWD 401 (Document # 403)
A trip to France: 13th - 20th December 1973 (Document # 404)
A trip to the U.S.A. 5th-25th January 1974 (Document # 406)
A time-wise hierarchy imposed upon the use of a two-level store (Document # 408)
The semantic characterization of a programming language (Document # 409)
Two Theorems (Document # 410)
On the design of properly terminating constructs (Document # 411)
EuGlid's Algorithm revisited (Document # 412)
The formal treatment of some small examples -- a brief review of Algol 68 (Document # 413)
Seventh example (Document # 413)
A beautiful proof of a probably useless theorem (Document # 415)
On avoiding the infinite (Document # 416)
On the abolishment of the subscripted variable (Document # 417)
Guarded commands, non-determinacy and a calculus for the derivation of programs (Document # 418)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Luxembourg, 7-12 April 1974 (Document # 420)
An Essay on the notion: "the scope of variables" (Document # 424)
Self-stabilizing systems in spite of distributed control (Document # 426)
Speech at the Occasion of an Anniversary (Document # 427)
Array variables (Document # 428)
The Linear Search Theorem (Document # 430)
The Problem of the Next Permutation (Document # 431)
Letter to Professor C. A. R. Hoare (Document # 432)
The problem of The Dutch National Flag (Document # 433)
Updating a sequential file (Document # 434)
Associons: an effort toward accommodating potentially ultra-high concurrency (Document # 435)
Merging problems revisited (Document # 436)
An exercise attributed to R. W. Hamming (Document # 437)
The problem of the smallest prime factor of a large number (Document # 438)
Associons continued (Document # 439)
The problem of the most isolated villages (Document # 440)
The problem of the shortest subspanning tree (Document # 441)
Inside "Mathematics Inc." (Document # 442)
A Multi disciplinary Approach to Mathematics (Document # 443)
The problem of partitioning a graph in connected subgraphs (Document # 444)
The problem of the convex hull in three dimensions (Document # 445)
On the role of scientific thought (Document # 447)
Correctness concerns and, among other things, why they are resented (Document # 450)
About robustness and the like (Document # 452)
Finding the maximal strong components in a directed graph (Document # 453)
Determinism and recursion versus non-determinism and the transitive closure (Document # 456)
On non-determinacy being bounded (Document # 458)
The pattern matching problem (Document # 459)
Writing a number as the sum of two squares (Document # 460)
Preface (Document # 461)
A time-wise hierarchy imposed upon the use of a two-level store (Document # 462)
Some questions (Document # 463)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Meeting IFIP W.G.2.3., Munich, 8-14 December 1974 (Document # 466)
In retrospect (Document # 468)
Programming methodologies, their objectives and their nature (Document # 469)
On the teaching of programming, i.e. on the teaching of thinking (Document # 473)
A letter to my old friend Jonathan (Document # 475)
Concurrent programming: a preliminary investigation (Document # 476)
On one-sided smoothing of event sequences (Document # 478)
"Craftsman or Scientist?" (Document # 480)
1975 International Conference on Reliable Software, April 21-23 (Document # 481)
Exercises in making programs robust (Document # 482)
Trip report E.W. Dijkstra, London, March 9-10, 1975 (Document # 484)
Letter to the Burroughs Recipients of the EWD series (Document # 487)
On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in multi processing (Document # 492)
Trip report E.W. Dijkstra, 16 April-7 May, U.S.A and Canada (Document # 494)
On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in cooperation (Document # 496)
A challenge to memory designers? (Document # 497)
How do we tell truths that might hurt? (Document # 498)
After many a sobering experience (Document # 500)
Variations on a theme: an open letter to C. A. R. Hoare (Document # 501)
On a gauntlet thrown by David Gries (Document # 502)
A post-scriptum to EWD 501 (Document # 503)
Erratum and embellishments of EWD 503 (Document # 504)
A synthesis emerging? (Document # 508)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra W.G. 2.3, Baden, 1-5 September 1975 (Document # 511)
Comments at a Symposium (Document # 512)
On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in cooperation (Document # 520)
Review of "On the Feasibility of Software Certification" (Document # 524)
On a warning from E. A. Hauck (Document # 525)
Comments on 'Woodenman" Hal Requirements for the DoD (Document # 526)
On units of consistency (Document # 527)
More on Hauck's warning (Document # 528)
An open-letter to L. Bass (Document # 532)
An answer to Jack Mazola (Document # 535)
A sequel to EWD 535 (Document # 536)
Mathematics Inc., a private letter from its Chairman (Document # 539)
Two views of programming (Document # 540)
An open letter to Ross Honsberger (Document # 544)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, England and USA, 3-26, January 1976 (Document # 547)
A more formal treatment of a less simple example (Document # 550)
A personal summary of the Gries-Owicki Theory (Document # 554)
A "non trip report" from E. W. Dijkstra (Document # 561)
The Effective Arrangement of Logical Systems (Document # 562)
Formal Techniques and Sizeable Programs (Document # 563)
A superficial book (Document # 564)
Programming: From craft to scientific discipline (Document # 565-66)
A programmer's early memories (Document # 568)
An Exercise for Dr. R. M. Burstall (Document # 570)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, USA and UK, 8 June-10 July 1976 (Document # 572)
A great improvement (Document # 573)
A letter to Professor Zohar Manna, 26 July 1976 (Document # 574)
To H. D. Mills, Chairman Software Methodology Panel (Document # 575)
On subgoal induction (Document # 576)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, ECI-conference 9 - 12 August 1976, Amsterdam (Document # 577)
More about the function "fuse" [A sequel to EWD 570] (Document # 578)
A somewhat open letter to Professor John McCarthy (Document # 581)
A proof of a theorem communicated to us by S. Ghosh (Document # 582)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Poland and USSR, 4-25 September 1976 (Document # 584)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Tokyo, 28 Sep. - 3 Oct. 1976 (Document # 585)
A first investigation of the crossflow computer (Document # 590)
The problem of the maximum length of an ascending subsequence (Document # 591)
A small note on the additive composition of variant functions (Document # 592)
A parable (Document # 594)
On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in cooperation (Document # 595)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Copenhagen 10-12 Nov. 1976 (Document # 596)
Yet another note about termination (Document # 597)
A bug in my book (Document # 598)
A sequent to FED 592 (Document # 599-600)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, Munich 24-26 November 1976 (Document # 601)
Comments--on Arbeitsblatt 3 from Prof. Dr. F. L. Bauer (Document # 602)
Trip report E.W. Dijkstra, St. Pierre-de-Chartreuse, 12-19 Dec. 1976 (Document # 603)
Paying logical conscience-money to the fair daemon (Document # 604)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Columbus-Pittsburgh-Paoli (Document # 605)
A correctness proof for communication processes: a small exercise (Document # 607)
An elephant inspired by the Dutch National Flag (Document # 608)
On the fact that the Atlantic Ocean has two sides (Document # 611)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Australia. 16 Feb.1977-21 Mar.1977 (Document # 613)
A somewhat open letter to EAA or: why I proved the boundedness of the non-determinacy in the way I did (Document # 614)
On Webster, users, bugs and Aristotle (Document # 618)
Essays on the nature and role of mathematical elegance (Document # 619)
The mathematics behind the Banker's Algorithm (Document # 623)
Stationary behavior or some ternary networks (Document # 624)
Two starvation-free solutions of a general exclusion problem (Document # 625)
A position paper on Software Reliability (Document # 627)
On two beautiful solutions designed by Martin Rem (Document # 629)
On-the-fly garbage collection: an exercise in cooperation (Document # 630)
Position paper on the impact of microprocessors [IFIP77] (Document # 634)
Why naive program transformation systems are unlikely to work (Document # 636)
The three Golden Rules for Successful Scientific Research (Document # 637)
The introduction of MAES (Document # 639)
Finding the correctness proof of a concurrent program (Document # 640)
Finding the correctness proof of a concurrent program (Document # 640a)
On the interplay between mathematics and programming (Document # 641)
A theorem about odd powers of odd integers (Document # 650)
A strong P/V-implementation of conditional critical regions (Document # 651)
A correction on EWD 651 (Document # 652)
Exploiting contiguity in a linear store (Document # 653)
In honor of Fibonacci (Document # 654)
On leaves and nodes: a simplification of EWD 653 (Document # 657)
On language constraints enforceable by translators (Document # 658)
On the BLUE Language submitted to the DoD (Document # 659)
On the GREEN Language submitted to the DoD. Team identificaton 142-48 (Document # 660)
On the RED Language submitted to the DoD (Document # 661)
On the YELLOW Language submitted to the DoD (Document # 662)
The summing up (Document # 663)
Trip report E. W. Dijkstra, U.K. Bahamas - USA 11-30 April 1978 (Document # 665)
A problem solving in my head (Document # 666)
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Newcastle, London, Lancaster. September 4 - 13, 1978 (Document # 679)
A book review (Document # 680)
To a new member of The Tuesday Afternoon Club (Document # 683)
Termination detection for diffusing computations by E. W. Dijkstra and C. S. Scholten (Document # 684)
The problem of the Swiss football players (Document # 685)
Termination detection for diffusing computations by E. W. Dijkstra and C. S. Scholten (Document # 687a)
Termination detection for diffusing computations by E. W. Dijkstra and C. S. Scholten [2nd version] (Document # 687)
A trifle (Document # 688)
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Valley Forge, October 28 -November 2, 1978 (Document # 689)
The pragmatic engineer versus the scientific designer (Document # 690)
On improving the State-Of-The-Art (Document # 691)
A review of the 1977 Turning Award Lecture by John Backus (Document # 692)
About polygons in Detroit (Document # 693)
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Detroit, Austin, Philadelphia. November 25 - December 9, 1978 (Document # 694)
Mathematics in an easy chair (Document # 695)
Written in anger (Document # 696)
Same beautiful arguments using mathematical induction (Document # 697)
Trip Report E. W. Dijkstra, Oxford University, January 10 - 15, 1979 (Document # 698)
An examination exercise, designed by W. H. J. Feijen (Document # 700)
Two Theorems on (what I have called) continuously mixed sequence (Document # 701)
In reaction to Ernest Chang's "Deadlock Detection" (Document # 702)
A tutorial on the split binary semaphore (Document # 703)
Dear Mr. X of Company Y (Document # 707)
When messages may crawl (Document # 708)
When messages may crawl, II (a sequel to EWD 708) (Document # 710)
Trip report E.W. Dijkestra, Albany, Austin (Document # 711)
Trip report E.W. Dijkestra, Antwerp (Document # 712)
Trip report E.W. Dijkestra, Mission Viejo, Santa Cruz, Austin (Document # 714)
Trip report E.W. Dijkestra, Munich-London (Document # 715)
A short talk to my students about money (Document # 716)
An exercise in exposition (Document # 717)
Assembly conventions for the EDSAC (Document # 718)
On not duplicating volatile information (Document # 719)
Why correctness must be a mathmatical concern (Document # 720)
The design of a state space with a useful structure (Document # 721)
A book review for the IBM Systems Journal (Document # 722)
On W.H.J Teyen's solution for the lexicographic minimum of a circular list (Document # 723)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Liege (Document # 725)
How Dutch Informatics fell between two chairs (Document # 726)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, USA (Document # 727)
A problem solved by Netty van Gasteren and me (Document # 728)
An assertional proof of a program by G.L. Peterson (Document # 779)
A bagatelle for the left hand (Document # 800)
The Fast Fourier Transform and the Perfect Shuffle (Document # 807)
Canonical string reduction (Document # 808)
An introductory essay on three algorithms for sorting in situ (Document # 809)
Fast image construction in computerized axial tomography (Document # 810)
An alternative ending for AvG16/EWD 809 (Document # 811)
A personal summary of Jonkers's program transformation (Document #812)
About predicate transformers in general (Document # 813)
A review of a book on PEARL (Document # 814)
Remarks on notation (Document # 815)
Weakest preconditions, liberal and not (Document # 816)
An introduction to three algorithms for sorting in situ (Document # 817)
A nice theorem on monotonic predicate sequences (Document # 818)
Mathematical Induction and Computing Science (Document # 819)
On iteration and recursion (Document # 820)
From predicate transformers to predicates (Document # 821)
A summary of formulae {and of some theory} (Document # 822)
A sequal to EWD 822 (Document # 823)
Linearization of a two-dimensional search (Document # 824)
About the correctness of a few SASL programs (Document # 825)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, USA (Document # 826)
A very simple exercise in SASL (Document # 827)
Distributed termination detection revisited (Document # 828)
On different notions of termination (Document # 830)
Why numbering should start at zero (Document # 831)
A theorem about infinite sequences of numbers (Document # 832)
An In-Depth Seminar on Proven Tools and Techniques of Structured Methodology for Effective Software Configuration Management (Document # 833)
Elementary predicates and elimination (Document # 834)
Lecture notes on "Predicate transformers" (Document # 835)
A note on substitution and renaming (Document # 836)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Document # 837)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, Copenhagen (Document # 838)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, Utrecht (Document # 839)
Derivation of a termination detection algorithm for distributed computations (Document # 840)
"There is no 'royal road' to geometry" (Document # 841)
Two cheers for equivalence (Document # 842)
A short sequel to EWD 842 (Document # 843)
A universal quantification revisited (Document # 844)
McCarthy's 91-function: an unfortunate paradigm (Document # 845)
The maximum length of a segment satisfying a monotonic predicate (Document # 846)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Australia (Document # 847)
Junctivity of extreme solutions (Document # 849a)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Helsinki (Document # 850)
Reducing control traffic in a distributed implementation of mutual exclusion (Document # 851)
Judging "HOS" from a distance (Document # 852a)
A correction of EWD 851b (Document # 853)
A simple fix-point argument without the restriction to continuity (Document # 886a)
On partitioning predicates (Document # 894)
Trip report E.W.Dykstra, Marktoberdorf (Document # 895)
On the nature of computing science (Document # 896)
A formal program derivation for the record (Document # 897)
The threats to computing science (Document # 898)
A review of a paper in AI (Document # 899)
Minsegsumtwodim (Document # 900a)
Abstract (Document # 901)
A short sequal to EWD 863 (Document # 903)
A problem solved by my nephew Sybrand L. Dykstra (Document # 904)
Mainly on our use of the predicate calculus (Document # 905)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Nuenen & London (Document # 906)
Trip report E.W.Dijkstra, Netherlands, Austria (Document # 907)
Predicate transformers (Document # 908)
Trip report E.W.Dykstra, Westboro, Boston (Document # 909)
Semantics of straight-line programs (Document # 910)
Trip report E.W.Dykstra, Tulsa (Document # 911)
Extreme solutions of equations (Document # 912)
On a cultural gap (Documents # 913)
The repetition (Document # 914)
A sequel to EWD 912, i.e. to draft Ch.5 (Document # 915)
An improvement on EWD 912 (Document # 916)
Another misguided effort (Document # 917)
A summary of a year's impressions (Document # 918)
Can computing science save the computer industry? (Document # 920)
A correction of EWD 914-15 (Document # 921)
A belated proof of self-stabilization (Document # 922)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, Ithaca, Newport (Document # 923)
On a cultural gap (Document # 924)
Trip report E.W. Dykstra, London (Document # 925)
A computer to think about (Document # 926)
The ATAC [Austin Tuesday Afternoon Club] (Document # 927)
On structures (Document # 928)
For the record: the linear search (Document # 930)
Concerning the equivalence (Document # 931)
Some simple lemmata on incremental sorting (Document # 932b)
On a problem posed by M.R. Khalil [for the record] (Document # 933)
The Saddleback Search (Document # 934)
For the record: Batcher's Baffler (Document # 935a)
On anthropomorphism in science (Document # 936)
Correction and extension of EWD 932b (Document # 937)
To an anonymous referee of AvG45/EWD 901 (Document # 938)
Incremental sorting once more (Document # 939)
What I missed in Batcher's Baffler [EWD 935a-o] (Document # 940)
Rotating a linear array (Document # 941)
The longest plateau and other stories (Document # 942)
The problem of the Longest Ribbon (Document # 943)
The operation "trickle" (Document # 944)
A simple theorem? (Document # 945)
The proof of the pudding (Document # 946)
A letter to a typewriter manufacturer (Document # 947)
Misra's proof for Lamport's mutual exclusion (Document # 948)