Dijkstra was one of the most prolific computer scientists.
He wrote the famous EWDs.
It is not feasible to read them all. But I think there are some we all must read.
I would love to receive recommendations from the citizens of SO Republic.
So, which of them are must read?
Thank you.
Funny. I just blogged about this.
http://slott-softwarearchitect.blogspot.com/2009/08/e-w-dijkstra-archive-wow.html
I think this may be pretty important because it parallels the Discipline of Programming book.
I've you've not been introduced to it in a formal setting (i.e. at school or university), you can probably benefit from exposure to Dijkstra's method of program construction, a very rigid but powerful technique for documenting and making accountable one's thought processes when designing programs and algorithms.
A discipline of programming would probably be a good start (as would Roland Backhouse's Program Construction), but I think in terms of pure impact, it's best to see someone skilled in the technique use it to good effect. His lecture The power of counting arguments (hosted at the University of Texas) is a good demonstration for this purpose.