Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective

Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective PDF Author: Edsger W. Dijkstra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146125695X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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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 advent of the copier. (That same copier makes it hard to estimate its actual distribution: I myself made about two dozen copies of my texts, but their recipients were welcome to act as further nodes of the distribution tree. ) The decision to publish a se1ection from the EWD series in book form was at first highly embarrassing, but as the months went by I got used to the idea. As soon as some guiding principles had been adopted -preferably not published elsewhere, as varied and as representative as possible, etc.

Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective

Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective PDF Author: Edsger W. Dijkstra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146125695X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Get Book Here

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 advent of the copier. (That same copier makes it hard to estimate its actual distribution: I myself made about two dozen copies of my texts, but their recipients were welcome to act as further nodes of the distribution tree. ) The decision to publish a se1ection from the EWD series in book form was at first highly embarrassing, but as the months went by I got used to the idea. As soon as some guiding principles had been adopted -preferably not published elsewhere, as varied and as representative as possible, etc.

What Computing Is All About

What Computing Is All About PDF Author: Jan L.A.van de Snepscheut
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461227100
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
I have always been fascinated with engineering. From Roman bridges and jumbo jets to steam engines and CD players, it is the privilege of the en gineer to combine scientific insights and technical possibilities into useful and elegant products. Engineers get a great deal of satisfaction from the usefulness and beauty of their designs. Some of these designs have a major impact on our daily lives, others enable further scientific insights or shift limits of technology. The successful engineer is familiar with the scientific basis of the field and the technology of the components, and has an eye for the envisioned applications. For example, to build an airplane, one had better understand the physics of motion, the structural properties of alu minum, and the size of passengers. And the physics of motion requires a mastery of mathematics, in particular calculus. Computers are a marvel of modern engineering. They come in a wide variety and their range of applications seems endless. One of the charac teristics that makes computers different from other engineering products is their programmability. Dishwashers have some limited programming capa is not the key part of the device. Their essential part is some bility, but it enclosed space where the dishes are stored and flushed with hot water. Computers are embedded in many different environments, but in their case the programming capability is the essential part. All computers are programmed in more or less the same way.

On a Method of Multiprogramming

On a Method of Multiprogramming PDF Author: W.H.J. Feijen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387988702
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Here, the authors propose a method for the formal development of parallel programs - or multiprograms as they prefer to call them. They accomplish this with a minimum of formal gear, i.e. with the predicate calculus and the well- established theory of Owicki and Gries. They show that the Owicki/Gries theory can be effectively put to work for the formal development of multiprograms, regardless of whether these algorithms are distributed or not.

Software Configuration Management Using Vesta

Software Configuration Management Using Vesta PDF Author: Clark Allan Heydon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387308520
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Helps in the development of large software projects. Uses a well-known open-source software prototype system (Vesta developed at Digital and Compaq Systems Research Lab).

A Discipline of Programming

A Discipline of Programming PDF Author: Edsger W. Dijkstra
Publisher: Prentice Hall
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Executional abstraction; The role of programming languages; States and their characterization; The characterization of semantics; The semantic characterization of a programming language; Two theorems; On the design of properly terminating; Euclid's algorithm revisited; The formal treatment of some small examples; The linear search theorem; The problem of the next permutation.

Solving Mathematical Problems

Solving Mathematical Problems PDF Author: Terence Tao
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191568694
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Authored by a leading name in mathematics, this engaging and clearly presented text leads the reader through the tactics involved in solving mathematical problems at the Mathematical Olympiad level. With numerous exercises and assuming only basic mathematics, this text is ideal for students of 14 years and above in pure mathematics.

Relational Database Technology

Relational Database Technology PDF Author: Suad Alagić
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387962764
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book presents a unified collection of concepts, tools, and techniques that constitute the most important technology available for the design and implementation of information systems. The framework for this integration goal is the one offered by the relational model of data, its applications, and implementations in multiuser and distributed environments. This book attempts to develop an integrated methodology for the relational approach and various research and practical developments related to that approach.

Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics

Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics PDF Author: Edsger W. Dijkstra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461232287
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This booklet presents a reasonably self-contained theory of predicate trans former semantics. Predicate transformers were introduced by one of us (EWD) as a means for defining programming language semantics in a way that would directly support the systematic development of programs from their formal specifications. They met their original goal, but as time went on and program derivation became a more and more formal activity, their informal introduction and the fact that many of their properties had never been proved became more and more unsatisfactory. And so did the original exclusion of unbounded nondeterminacy. In 1982 we started to remedy these shortcomings. This little monograph is a result of that work. A possible -and even likely- criticism is that anyone sufficiently versed in lattice theory can easily derive all of our results himself. That criticism would be correct but somewhat beside the point. The first remark is that the average book on lattice theory is several times fatter (and probably less self contained) than this booklet. The second remark is that the predicate transformer semantics provided only one of the reasons for going through the pains of publication.

Personal Perspectives

Personal Perspectives PDF Author: Timothy C. Dowling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1851095802
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
A compelling account of the personal experiences of groups who were affected by World War II, both on and off the battlefields. Personal Perspectives: World War II brings to life the experiences of specific segments of soldiers and civilians as they were affected by the conflict, capturing special characteristics of each group and the unique ways they experienced the war. Twelve essays written by top international scholars portray what it was really like to experience the war for groups ranging from marines, naval aviators, and liberators of concentration camps to prisoners of war, refugees, and women in factories. Of interest to both students and nonexperts, the book tells the stories of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps and African Americans who experienced intense discrimination, the call to activism, and opportunity in the armed forces. It offers the perspectives of Navajo "code talkers," diplomats like U.S. ambassador to Poland Anthony J. Biddle, who fled his post to avoid death, and scientists who worked on the Manhattan project, thereby introducing the most destructive form of warfare known to humanity.

Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology

Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology PDF Author: Michel Callon
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 134907408X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
This book is a collection of works regarding the interactions of science, technology, and society.