4 ms·

He has really nice handwriting.

by geocar 10y ago

Someone 10y ago
Had, and many people think so. Somebody even made a TrueType font called Dijkstra (http://ufonts.com/fonts/dijkstra.html http://ufonts.com/fonts/dijkstra.html) If you want to keep one, it is worthwhile to download it from a few sites; multiple variants exist. AFAIK the only difference between them is the character set (a couple of fractions, IIRC)
- nabla9 10y ago
  >His handwriting was so perfect and distinct that in the late 1980s Luca Cardelli, then from the DEC Systems Research Center, designed a ‘Dijkstra’ font for Macintosh computers. Soon after, Dijkstra received a letter typeset in this font and thought it was handwritten until news reached him about the creation of this font. Ddsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930–2002): A Portrait of a Genius - CWI http://homepages.cwi.nl/~apt/ps/dijkstra.pdf http://homepages.cwi.nl/~apt/ps/dijkstra.pdf
throwaway6497 10y ago
What is remarkable is that on a computer, you can reedit what to write to death. On a piece of paper, you have to get it right the very first time.
- Bromskloss 10y ago
  Only if it's your last sheet. ;-) I've been known to… Well, no one knows it, but I have anyway practice-written letters that, shall we say, have been important to me to get right, trying out leadings and line breaks many times before writing out the out final version.
krylon 10y ago
I thought so, too.
damptowel 10y ago
In elementary school I was thought to draw in roundhand variant. The problem I had felt for years was that I could either draw fast or readable, but never both. So a number of years ago I set out to consciously change my writing style. I decided 2 requirements: letter shapes had to be as simple as possible, preferably a single stroke, but still distinguishable (eg. u, v, r can look similar in a rush). In the end I tried to distill as pure and simple a style I could and it turns out my letter forms are near identical to Dijkstra's. This makes me wonder whether he was taught this handwriting or went through the same thought process, knowing his inclinations I would not be surprised if he did.

He has really nice handwriting.

by geocar 10y ago

He has really nice handwriting.

Had, and many people think so. Somebody even made a TrueType font called Dijkstra (http://ufonts.com/fonts/dijkstra.html http://ufonts.com/fonts/dijkstra.html) If you want to keep one, it is worthwhile to download it from a few sites; multiple variants exist. AFAIK the only difference between them is the character set (a couple of fractions, IIRC)

nabla9 10y ago
>His handwriting was so perfect and distinct that in the late 1980s Luca Cardelli, then from the DEC Systems Research Center, designed a ‘Dijkstra’ font for Macintosh computers. Soon after, Dijkstra received a letter typeset in this font and thought it was handwritten until news reached him about the creation of this font. Ddsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930–2002): A Portrait of a Genius - CWI http://homepages.cwi.nl/~apt/ps/dijkstra.pdf http://homepages.cwi.nl/~apt/ps/dijkstra.pdf

throwaway6497 10y ago

What is remarkable is that on a computer, you can reedit what to write to death. On a piece of paper, you have to get it right the very first time.

Bromskloss 10y ago
Only if it's your last sheet. ;-) I've been known to… Well, no one knows it, but I have anyway practice-written letters that, shall we say, have been important to me to get right, trying out leadings and line breaks many times before writing out the out final version.

krylon 10y ago

I thought so, too.

damptowel 10y ago

In elementary school I was thought to draw in roundhand variant. The problem I had felt for years was that I could either draw fast or readable, but never both. So a number of years ago I set out to consciously change my writing style. I decided 2 requirements: letter shapes had to be as simple as possible, preferably a single stroke, but still distinguishable (eg. u, v, r can look similar in a rush). In the end I tried to distill as pure and simple a style I could and it turns out my letter forms are near identical to Dijkstra's. This makes me wonder whether he was taught this handwriting or went through the same thought process, knowing his inclinations I would not be surprised if he did.