EWD249 - 0

To my reader.

These notes have the status of "Letters written to myself": I wrote them down because, without doing so, I found myself repeating the same arguments over and over again. When reading what I had written, I was not always too satisfied.

For one thing, I felt that they suffered from a marked verbosity. Yet I do not try to condense them (now), firstly because that would introduce another delay and I would like to "think on", secondly because earlier experiences have made me afraid of being misunderstood: many a programmer tends to see his (sometimes rather specific) difficulties as the core of the subject and as a result there are widely divergent opinions as to what programming is really about.

For another thing, as a document this is very incomplete: I am only too aware of the fact that it ends in mid-air. Yet I have decided to have these notes duplicated, besides some practical considerations mainly to show what I have thought to those who expressed interest in it or to those whose comments I would welcome.

I hope that, despite its defects, you will enjoy at least parts of it. If these notes prove to be a source of inspiration or to give you a new appreciation of the programmer's trade, some of my goals will have been reached.

Edsger W.Dijkstra