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

For a long time I thought that Dijkstra's 1976 book “A Discipline of Programming” was a preview of the promised land by showing how to do this, not with assertions, but with guarded commands and weakest preconditions. It requires become transparent, accountable, and responsible. 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. But as Daylight argues in this fascinating historical account of the development of computer programming as a discipline in the 1950s and 60s, the real story is much more complicated. A discipline like Extreme Programming requires a radical upgrade in both technical and social skills, especially for programmers. And in fact, some of these disciplines are diametric. That being said, to continue with jslade's analogy, there are different disciplines in programming (just as there are in ninjutsu, and in sports). Alexander's mathematical concepts and orientation were similar to Edsger Dijkstra's influential A Discipline of Programming. The sole justification for discipline in software development and maintenance, is that it as it prevents defects. The reaction of these teams suggested their levels of discipline with various practices. As a result Alistair sees Crystal as requiring less discipline than extreme programming, trading off less efficiency for a greater habitability and reduced chances of failure.