March 1968
Dijkstra publishes 'Go To Considered Harmful'
Edsger Dijkstra's March 1968 letter argued against unrestricted goto statements — shaping structured programming.
What it was for
Dijkstra's note influenced how generations learned control flow with if/while/for instead of spaghetti jumps. He also invented shortest-path algorithms and semaphores fundamental to OSOperating system — software that manages hardware and provides services to applications. design.
People
- Edsger Dijkstra — researcher
Why it's here
The letter is one of the most cited opinion pieces in programming history.
Why it mattered
It advanced structured programming and readable control flow.
What it solved
Unrestricted goto made large programs impossible to reason about or maintain.
Media
ImageEdsger W. DijkstraHamilton Richards, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons