Ned Konz wrote:

> On Wednesday 07 August 2002 12:18 pm, Sean McGrath wrote:
> >>In 1973 came the famous book "Structured Programming'' by  Ole-Johan

> >>Dahl, Edsger Dijkstra and C.A.R. Hoare, which had an  immense impact

> >>upon the teaching of programming. From the 1970s  on, the 
> >>possibilities of proving the correctness of programs  interested him

> >>most. In this field, too, he became an important  researcher.

> And Edsger Dijkstra just died, as well...


http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/UTCS/notices/dijkstra/ewdobit.html

<QUOTE>

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 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. 

</QUOTE>