quality:corruption
Legacy

Dijkstra won the Turing award in 1972 for his advocacy of structured programming, a programming paradigm that makes use of structured control flow as opposed to unstructured jumps to different sections in a program using Goto statements. His 1968 letter to the editor of Communications of ACM, " Go To statement considered harmful ", caused a major debate. Modern programmers generally adhere to the paradigm of structured programming.

Among his most famous contributions to computer science is shortest path algorithm, known as Dijkstra's algorithm, widely taught in modern computer science undergraduate courses. His other contributions included the Shunting yard algorithm; the THE multiprogramming system, an important early example of structuring a system as a set of layers; the Banker's algorithm; and the semaphore construct for coordinating multiple processors and programs. Another concept formulated by Dijkstra in the field of distributed computing is that of self-stabilization – an alternative way to ensure the reliability of the system. Dijkstra's algorithm is used in SPF, Shortest Path First, which is used in the routing protocols OSPF and IS-IS.