As Blake Well Knew
From The New York Times:
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, whose contributions to the mathematical logic that underlies computer programs and operating systems make him one of the intellectual giants of the field, died on [August 6, 2002] at his home in Nuenen, the Netherlands. He was 72….
Dr. Dijkstra is best known for his shortest-path algorithm, a method for finding the most direct route on a graph or map….
The shortest-path algorithm, which is now widely used in global positioning systems and travel planning, came to him one morning in 1956 as he sat sipping coffee on the terrace of an Amsterdam cafe.
It took him three years to publish the method, which is now known simply as Dijkstra’s algorithm. At the time, he said, algorithms were hardly considered a scientific topic.
From my August 6, 2002, note below:
…right through hell there is a path, as Blake well knew…
— Malcolm Lowry, 1947, Under the Volcano