E.W.Dijkstra Archive

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독서·학습 The personal archive of Edsger W. Dijkstra at UT Austin, hosting transcriptions of his numbered EWD manuscripts on programming, computing science, and mathematical reasoning.

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Editor's Review

For reference only

A primary-source archive rather than a tutorial site: the value lies in Dijkstra's original essays, with their sharp arguments and unmistakable voice. Best suited to readers who already know the computing context and want to trace his positions firsthand. Navigation is plain and text-heavy, so expec

Site introduction

This site is a section of the E.W. Dijkstra Archive maintained at the University of Texas at Austin, presenting transcriptions of Dijkstra’s numbered EWD manuscripts. The page in question is EWD 667, an essay arguing against the idea of “natural language programming” and defending formal notation in programming.

The archive’s core offering is faithful transcription of Dijkstra’s writings, identified by their EWD numbers and preserved as text rather than as commentary or summary. Readers get the author’s own reasoning, examples, and rhetorical style, which makes the collection useful for quoting and for following the development of his thinking across documents.

It suits students and researchers in computing science, historians of the field, and programmers curious about foundational debates on language design, correctness, and the role of formalism. Because the material is argumentative and historically situated, it rewards readers with some background in programming languages and software engineering.

A practical approach is to start from a manuscript number or a known title, then read adjacent EWDs for context, since the essays often respond to earlier discussions. The plain HTML presentation is easy to cite and archive, though it offers no search aids or explanatory notes. Overall, it is a compact, authoritative source for Dijkstra’s own words.