Discipline Of Programming

A Discipline Of Programming by EwDijkstra

Author Edsger W. Dijkstra introduces A Discipline of Programming with the statement, "My original idea was to publish a number of beautiful algorithms in such a way that the reader could appreciate their beauty." Dijkstra achieves this goal and accomplishes a great deal more.

He begins by considering the questions:

"What is an algorithm?"
"What are we doing when we program?"

These questions lead him to an interesting digression on the semantics of programming languages. Dijkstra then delivers, as promised, a collection of beautiful algorithms.

These algorithms are far ranging, covering mathematical computations, various kinds of sorting problems, pattern matching, convex hulls, and more. The value in reading A Discipline of Programming is to absorb and understand the way that Dijkstra thought about these problems, which for some, is more valuable than to have a collection of a thousand algorithms.

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