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Here is the citation for his 1972 Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science: "Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950s to

Here is the citation for his 1972 Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science: "Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950s to the development of the ALGOL, a high level programming language which has become a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. He is one of the principal proponents of the science and art of programming languages in general, and has greatly contributed to our understanding of their structure, representation, and implementation. His fifteen years of publications extend from theoretical articles on graph theory to basic manuals, expository texts, and philosophical contemplations in the field of programming languages."

marvin 13y ago
...and for those on HN who are self-taught and aren't aware of the history of computer science, ALGOL is the foundation of imperative programming and inspires just about every imperative language today. Crucially, this means C and C++, which means that Dijkstra's work is part of the foundation for most operating systems and low-level code in the world - indeed most software systems period, since the vast majority of these are somehow based on C.
greenyoda 13y ago
And let's not forget his work on concurrent processes: he invented the concept of the semaphore, which is still widely used almost fifty years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_%28programming%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_%28programming%29
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >he invented the concept of the semaphore, I think he may have borrowed that from the railroads, even if he didn't invent it independently though, he was smart enough to see its usefulness and apply it.