December 3rd, 2012, 5:24 am
Quote"Dijkstra was known for his habit of carefully composing manuscripts with his fountain pen. The manuscripts are called EWDs, since Dijkstra numbered them with EWD as prefix. According to Dijkstra himself, the EWDs started when he moved from the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam to the Technological University (then TH) Eindhoven. After going to the TUE Dijkstra experienced a writer's block for more than a year. Looking closely at himself he realized that if he wrote about things they would appreciate at the MC in Amsterdam his colleagues in Eindhoven would not understand; if he wrote about things they would like in Eindhoven, his former colleagues in Amsterdam would look down on him. He then decided to write only for himself, and in this way the EWD's were born. Dijkstra would distribute photocopies of a new EWD among his colleagues; as many recipients photocopied and forwarded their copy, the EWDs spread throughout the international computer science community. The topics were computer science and mathematics, and included trip reports, letters, and speeches. More than 1300 EWDs have since been scanned, with a growing number transcribed to facilitate search, and are available online at the Dijkstra archive of the University of Texas." QuoteYou see, another thing this alien resident of the USA could not fail to notice was the strong scepticism evoked over here by his 'I thought eloquent and convincing' pleas for a more mathematical approach to computing science and programming. An implication of that story is that, in the USA, the term "mathematics" has a meaning that differs from the one I grew up with. I am getting a feeling for how that divergence could occur; the role of education, which differs from country to country, has a lot to do with it. Is the use of Mathematica a replacement for pencil and paper?
Last edited by
Cuchulainn on December 2nd, 2012, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.