Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930–2000)

One of the grandfathers of computer science.
Lucid exploration of fundamental programming constructs that are still the daily tools of legions of programmers worldwide. If only they had the concept grounding from this book (or those like it) myriads of bugs would never be written.

Another seminal book on the engineering of programming. The control, logic and data structures explored in this book are fundamental to the daily trade of legions of programmers worldwide. If only they had the concept grounding from this book (or others like it) myriads of bugs would never be written.

An elegant set of definitions, examples, and exercises for beginning a path of programming by calculation*. As a little beginner, 'A Method of Programming' was a big part of a big first step and more than a path measurable by any length. It was a step, not a path; a method, not a methodology.

Tree of Contents:

Preface

PART 0

• A method programming
• Mechanisms and their state
• Programs and their construction
• The assignment := statement
• Permissible expressions
• Concatenation show more of statements;
• The if alternative statement fi
• Permissible Boolean expressions
• The do repetitive statement
|[ An intermezzo about inner blocks ]|
od
• The array
• The minimal segment sum
• The maximal monotone subsequence
• The inversion count
• Numbers with factors 2, 3 and 5 only
• Coordinate transformation
• On account of a directed graph
• The shortest path
• The binary search
• The longest upsequence

PART 1

0 General Introduction
0.0 Predicate calculus
0.1 Mathematical induction
0.2 Remaining concepts
0.2.0 General
0.2.1 Other quantified expressions
0.3 Miscellaneous exercices
|[ goto(PART 0 ;-) ]|
1 Functional specifications and proof obligations
2 Programming exercises
3 Solutions to selected exercises

Index

*{p} ;step {q} or {p} ;skip {q} show less

Has one of my favorite lines ever in a textbook:

"For lack of a bibliography, I offer neither explanation nor apology."