Page "Edsger W. Dijkstra" Paragraph 13

Dijkstra was known for his habit of carefully composing manuscripts with his fountain pen.

The manuscripts are called EWDs, since Dijkstra numbered them with EWD, his initials, as a prefix.

According to Dijkstra himself, the EWDs started when he moved from the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam to the Eindhoven University of Technology ( then Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven ).

After going to Eindhoven, Dijkstra experienced a writer's block for more than a year.

Looking closely at himself he realized that if he wrote about things they would appreciate at the MC in Amsterdam his colleagues in Eindhoven would not understand ; if he wrote about things they would like in Eindhoven, his former colleagues in Amsterdam would look down on him.

He then decided to write only for himself, and in this way the EWDs were born.

Dijkstra would distribute photocopies of a new EWD among his colleagues ; as many recipients photocopied and forwarded their copy, the EWDs spread throughout the international computer science community.

The topics were computer science and mathematics, and included trip reports, letters, and speeches.

More than 1300 EWDs have since been scanned, with a growing number transcribed to facilitate search, and are available online at the Dijkstra archive of the University of Texas.