Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Dutch: [ˈɛtsxər ˈʋibə ˈdɛikstra] (
listen); 11 May 1930(民国19年) – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist and an early pioneer in many research areas of computing science.
As he recalled:[27]
After having programmed for some three years, ... and to become....., yes what? A programmer? But was that a respectable profession? For after all, what was programming? Where was the sound body of knowledge that could support it as an intellectually respectable discipline? ... I knocked on van Wijngaarden's office door, asking him whether I could "speak to him for a moment"; when I left his office a number of hours later, I was another person. For after having listened to my problems patiently, he agreed that up till that moment there was not much of a programming discipline, but then he went on to explain quietly that automatic computers were here to stay, that we were just at the beginning and could not I be one of the persons called to make programming a respectable discipline in the years to come? This was a turning point in my life and I completed my study of physics formally as quickly as I could.
When Dijkstra married Maria (Ria) C. Debets in 1957, he was required as a part of the marriage rites to state his profession. He stated that he was a programmer, which was unacceptable to the authorities, there being no such profession at that time in The Netherlands.
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