Editing Edsger W. Dijkstra (section)

=== Use of technology ===
He eschewed the use of computers in his own work for many decades. Even after he succumbed to his UT colleagues' encouragement and acquired a [[Mac (computer)|Macintosh]] computer, he used it only for e-mail and for browsing the World Wide Web.<ref name="Dijkstra_bio"/> Dijkstra never wrote his articles using a computer. He preferred to rely on his [[typewriter]] and later on his [[Montblanc (company)|Montblanc]] pen.<ref name="Apt, Krzysztof R. 2002"/> Dijkstra's favorite writing instrument was the Montblanc [[Meisterstück]] [[fountain pen]].

He had no use for [[word processor]]s, believing that one should be able to write a letter or article without rough drafts, rewriting, or any significant editing. He would work it all out in his head before putting pen to paper, and once mentioned that when he was a physics student he would solve his homework problems in his head while walking the streets of [[Leiden]].<ref name="Dijkstra_bio"/>
Most of Dijkstra's publications were written by him alone. He never had a secretary and took care of all his correspondence alone.<ref name="Apt, Krzysztof R. 2002"/> When colleagues prepared a [[Festschrift]] for his sixtieth birthday, published by [[Springer-Verlag]], he took the trouble to thank each of the 61 contributors separately, in a hand-written letter.<ref name="Apt, Krzysztof R. 2002"/>

In ''The Humble Programmer'' (1972), Dijkstra wrote: "We must not forget that it is not our [computing scientists'] business to make programs, it is our business to design classes of computations that will display a desired behaviour."

Dijkstra also opposed the inclusion of [[software engineering]] under the umbrella of academic computer science. He wrote that, "As economics is known as "The Miserable Science", software engineering should be known as "The Doomed Discipline", doomed because it cannot even approach its goal since its goal is self-contradictory." And "software engineering has accepted as its charter 'How to program if you cannot.'"<ref>{{Cite EWD|1036|On the cruelty of really teaching computer science}}</ref>