Edsger W. Dijkstra

Digital Library

ACM Fellows

USA - 1994

citation

Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950's to the development of the ALGOL, a high level programming language which has become a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. He is one of the principal exponents of the science and art of programming languages in general, and has greatly contributed to our understanding of their structure, representation, and implementation. His fifteen years of publications extend from theoretical articles on graph theory to basic manuals, expository texts, and philosophical contemplations in the field of programming languages.

ACM A. M. Turing Award

Netherlands - 1972

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citation

For fundamental contributions to programming as a high, intellectual challenge; for eloquent insistence and practical demonstration that programs should be composed correctly, not just debugged into correctness; for illuminating perception of problems at the foundations of program design.

The working vocabulary of programmers everywhere is studded with words originated or forcefully promulgated by E.W. Dijkstra - display, deadly embrace, semaphore, go-to-less programming, structured programming. But his influence on programming is more pervasive than any glossary can possibly indicate. The precious gift that this Turing Award acknowledges is Dijkstra's style: his approach to programming as a high, intellectual challenge; his eloquent insistence and practical demonstration that programs should be composed correctly, not just debugged into correctness; and his illuminating perception of problems at the foundations of program design. He has published about a dozen papers, both technical and reflective, among which are especially to be noted his philosophical address at IFIP, his already classic papers on cooperating sequential processes, and his memorable indictment of the go-to statement. An influential series of letters by Dijkstra have recently surfaced as a polished monograph on the art of composing programs. We have come to value good programs in much the same way as we value good literature. And at the center of this movement, creating and reflecting patters no less beautiful than useful, stands E.W. Dijkstra.

[Extract from the Turing award Citation ready by M.D. McIlroy, chairman of the ACM Turing Award Committee, at the presentatiion of his lecture on August 14, 1972, at the ACM Annual Conference in Boston.]

ACM Programming Systems and Languages Paper Award

USA - 1971

citation

The structure of the THE-multiprogramming system, Communications of the ACM, May 1968