Summary
This collection presents a personal selection from Edsger W. Dijkstra's "EWD series"—a form of scientific correspondence made possible by the copier, which he used to document his work as a Burroughs Research Fellow after 1973. The central argument is that the written word, circulated through informal distribution trees, became his primary mode of intellectual exchange when his daily routine shifted from university interaction to solitary study. The book gathers varied and representative texts not published elsewhere, offering a record of Dijkstra's computing insights during this period. Readers gain access to the author's unfiltered, self-documented thinking, preserved through a unique medium that bypassed traditional publishing.
Key concepts
- EWD series — A collection of scientific correspondence texts written by Dijkstra, distributed via copier to a network of recipients who could act as further nodes in the distribution tree.
- Burroughs Research Fellow — The position Dijkstra held from summer 1973 onward, which changed his daily routine from university work to solitary study and travel.
- Distribution tree — The informal network through which recipients of Dijkstra's copies could further share them, making the actual distribution hard to estimate.
- Scientific correspondence — A form of written communication used by Dijkstra to record and share his work, enabled by the advent of the copier.
From the book
Description: Since the summer of 1973, when I became a Burroughs Research Fellow, my life has been very different from what it had been before. The daily routine changed: instead of going to the University each day, where I used to spend most of my time in the company of others, I now went there only one day a week and was most of the time -that is, when not travelling!- alone in my study. In my solitude, mail and the written word in general became more and more important. The circumstance that my employer and I had the Atlantic Ocean between us was a further incentive to keep a fairly complete record of what I was doing. The public part of that output found its place in what became known as "the EWD series", which can be viewed as a form of scientific correspondence, possible since the…
Snippet: The public part of that output found its place in what became known as "the EWD series", which can be viewed as a form of scientific correspondence, possible since the advent of the copier. (That same copier makes it hard to estimate its ...
Popular questions readers ask
- How did Dijkstra's shift to a solitary work environment as a Burroughs Research Fellow fundamentally alter his method of communication and contribution to the computing field?
- Explain how the advent of the copier was not just a convenience, but a transformative technology for scientific correspondence like the EWD series. What does this suggest about the limitations of scientific communication before copiers?
- Why might Dijkstra initially feel "highly embarrassing" about publishing a selection of his scientific correspondence, and what does this reveal about the perceived distinction between formal publication and informal scientific sharing at the time?
- Describe the unique distribution model of the EWD series. What were its advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional publishing, and what modern-day equivalents exist for this kind of decentralized knowledge sharing?
- Analyze the "guiding principles" adopted for selecting the book's content (preferably not published elsewhere, as varied and as representative as possible). How do these principles reflect both the original spirit of the EWD series as "scientific correspondence" and the aims of creating a cohesive published work?