Edsger W. Dijkstra Archive

Home

Numerical
EWD Index:
    00xx
    01xx
    02xx
    03xx
    04xx
    05xx
    06xx
    07xx
    08xx
    09xx
    10xx
    11xx
    12xx
    13xx

BibTeX index

MC Reports

Other documents

Transcriptions

Video and Audio

External links

English translations of EWDs originally in Dutch

EWD number Title Translator(s)
35 About the sequentiality of process descriptions Martin van der Burgt
Heather Lawrence
255 On the IBM360 Maarten H. van Emden
451 Lord, deliver us from charlatans!
509 First speech, autumn 1975 Martin van der Burgt
515 Second speech, autumn 1975. Martin van der Burgt
1235 A step over the mark

A word about translations:

Because I am unable to read any Dutch, I asked Wim Feijen, EWD’s closest collaborator, for assistance in evaluating translations. His response:

Translation is an activity that requires a highly developed skill in at least two languages, and the problem with Edsger is that his mastery of Dutch is far beyond what an average translator can grasp.

In your case, I would stop chasing opportunities for translating Edsger's Dutch writings, no matter how you would like doing so....

After an attempt to translate EWD 724, EWD himself confesses that “this confrontation with the translator’s problems was an educational experience,” and (referring to a colleague who assisted in the translation) “neither of us is fully satisfied” with the result.

So I’m taking Wim’s advice, and regretfully bringing the effort to translate any more Dutch EWDs into English to a halt. Thanks to all who made the effort.

—Ham Richards


Revised 08-Dec-2014