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Beauty Is Our Business

A Birthday Salute to Edsger W. Dijkstra

  • Book
  • © 1990

Overview

Editors:
  1. W. H. J. Feijen

    1. Mathematics and Computer Science Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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  2. A. J. M. Gasteren

    1. Department of Computer Science, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

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  3. D. Gries

    1. Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

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  4. J. Misra

    1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas, Austin, USA

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Part of the book series: Monographs in Computer Science (MCS)

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Table of contents (54 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Proving Termination of Parallel Programs

    • Krzysztof R. Apt, Frank S. de Boer, Ernst-Rüdiger Olderog
    Pages 1-6

  3. On a Relation on Functions

    • Roland C. Backhouse
    Pages 7-18

  4. Efficient Solution of a Non-Monotonic Inverse Problem

    • F. L. Bauer
    Pages 19-26

  5. Semantics of Quasi-Boolean Expressions

    • A. Bijlsma
    Pages 27-35

  6. Small Specification Exercises

    • Richard S. Bird
    Pages 36-43

  7. Architecture of Real-Time Systems

    • Maarten Boasson
    Pages 44-53

  8. The Use of a Formal Simulator to Verify a Simple Real Time Control Program

    • Robert S. Boyer, Milton W. Green, J Strother Moore
    Pages 54-66

  9. Exploring the Future: Trends and Discontinuities

    • Donald W. Braben
    Pages 67-75

  10. On a Renewed Visit to the Banker and a Remarkable Analogy

    • Coen Bron
    Pages 76-82

  11. On Bounded Buffers: Modularity, Robustness, and Reliability in Reactive Systems

    • Manfred Broy
    Pages 83-93

  12. Examples in Program Composition

    • K. Mani Chandy, Stephen Taylor
    Pages 94-101

  13. On the Mechanism of the Hydrogenation of Edible Oils

    • Albert J. Dijkstra
    Pages 102-111

  14. The Problem of the Majority Network

    • W. H. J. Feijen, A. J. M. van Gasteren, D. Gries, J. Misra
    Pages 112-118

  15. A Little Exercise in Deriving Multiprograms

    • W. H. J. Feijen
    Pages 119-126

  16. Experimenting with a Refinement Calculus

    • A. J. M. van Gasteren
    Pages 127-134

  17. Serializable Programs, Parallelizable Assertions: A Basis for Interleaving

    • Mohamed G. Gouda
    Pages 135-140

  18. Binary to Decimal, One More Time

    • David Gries
    Pages 141-148

  19. Rotate and Double

    • A. N. Habermann
    Pages 149-162

  20. Beautifying Gödel

    • Eric C. R. Hehner
    Pages 163-172
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Keywords

About this book

More than anything else, this book is a tribute to Edsger W. Dijkstra, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, by just a few of those fortunate enough to be influenced by him and his work and to be called his friend or relation, his master, colleague, or pupil. This book contains fifty-four technical contributions in different areas of endeavor, although many of them deal with an area of particular concern to Dijkstra: programming. Each contribution is relatively short and could be digested in one sitting. Together, they form a nice cross section of the discipline of programming at the beginning of the nineties. While many know of Dijkstra's technical contributions, they may not be aware of his ultimate goal, the mastery of complexity in mathematics and computing science. He has forcefully argued that beauty and elegance are essential to this mastery. The title of this book, chosen to reflect his ultimate goal, comes from a sentence in an article of his on some beautiful arguments using mathematical induction: "... when we recognize the battle against chaos, mess, and unmastered complexity as one of computing sci- ence's major callings, we must admit that 'Beauty Is Our Business'."

Editors and Affiliations

  • Mathematics and Computer Science Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    W. H. J. Feijen

  • Department of Computer Science, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    A. J. M. Gasteren

  • Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

    D. Gries

  • Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas, Austin, USA

    J. Misra

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