A Discipline of Programming [Paperback]

Edsger W. Dijkstra (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author Edsger W. Dijkstra introduces A Discipline of Programming with the statement, "My original idea was to publish a number of beautiful algorithms in such a way that the reader could appreciate their beauty." In this classic work, Dijkstra achieves this goal and accomplishes a great deal more.

He begins by considering the questions, "What is an algorithm?" and "What are we doing when we program?" These questions lead him to an interesting digression on the semantics of programming languages, which, in turn, leads to essays on programming language constructs, scoping of variables, and array references. Dijkstra then delivers, as promised, a collection of beautiful algorithms.

These algorithms are far ranging, covering mathematical computations, various kinds of sorting problems, pattern matching, convex hulls, and more. Because this is an old book, the algorithms presented are sometimes no longer the best available. However, the value in reading A Discipline of Programming is to absorb and understand the way that Dijkstra thought about these problems, which, in some ways, is more valuable than a thousand algorithms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall, Inc. (October 28, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013215871X
• ISBN-13: 978-0132158718
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #652,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars computer science classic, September 26, 2001

By 

Ganapathy Subramaniam (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Discipline of Programming (Paperback)

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Coming from no less a person than Dijkstra, this book, though dated takes programming to a different level.

It blesses the discipline of programming with the mathematical formalism and begins to look at it as a piece of mathematics.

I picked this book while doing my CS undergraduate, and made me fall in love with CS, all over again.

It does NOT however talk much about programming techniques or methods! It looks at programs from as formal a view point as possible and builds a framework for constructing 'correct' programs..or more correctly a framework for 'proving the correctness' of a program. It takes you to the point of considering programs as poetry..

Its difficult to contemplate the application of the thoeries developed here into practice, though a lot of it is used in some form or the other, but nonetheless it makes an excellent reading.

I recommend it to anybody seriously interested in computer science .

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The finest book that I own., July 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Discipline of Programming (Paperback)

I purchased A Discipline Of Programming about fifteen years ago, at the start of my programming career. It remains the most important programming book that I own, and possibly the most important book of any kind. Anyone who aspires to be a programmer should spend many hours reading it. It is impossible not to benefit hugely.

The (unnamed) language invented by Dijkstra, almost as an aside in the early chapters of the book, is the language in which I would most like to write my programs. Some day perhaps I will be able to.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book about reasoning, September 27, 2000

By 

Hai Zhou (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Discipline of Programming (Paperback)

This is not only a book about programming, it is also a book about reasoning on programs, and even a book about reasoning. Treating a program as a formal object, the book discussed its meaning, how to reason about it, and even how to derive it. If you are not a hacker or do not want to be one, you will like this book, and highly possiblely you will read it many times.