A discipline of programming Edsger W. Dijkstra
Publisher: Prentice Hall, Inc.

The sole justification for discipline in software development and maintenance, is that it as it prevents defects. People often use this as an example to show that Dijkstra was excessively doctrinaire, and out of touch with the reality of programming, but usually it's because they don't know what his argument was. If DH were an accepted discipline, the recognition of programming activities or contributions to databases as scholarly accomplishment would not be such a big deal. Dijkstra introduces a function called wp for "weakest precondition". In the act of creation, you encounter the same tension of raw, boundless possibility against disciplined construction. This can be overcome with at least a little thought to organization and putting in good comments, but that takes a discipline that many programmers fail to appreciate. As long as I have been programming (about 35 years now) a common, recurring, and never ending discussion though is how to categorize programming as a discipline. This captures the essence of pairing as far as I'm concerned – it is a discipline of “programming out loud”. More than a parellel, programming began to change my way of looking at poetry. #3 | Written by Jorge Aranda on July 12, 2011. For further details, see Dijkstra's book "A Discipline of Programming". I wrote a response, explaining where Dijkstra was coming from, and I am very happy with how it . Knowing that the details make the product itself.