[rramadass]

The website author's thesis is on ALGOL60 Recursive Procedures;

Dijkstra's Rallying Cry for Generalization: the Advent of the Recursive Procedure, late 1950s - early 1960s - https://www.dijkstrascry.com/node/4

This paper describes some early contributions of E.W. Dijkstra by elaborating on his involvement in putting forward and implementing the recursive procedure as an ALGOL60 language construct. Particular attention is paid to Dijkstra's generalizing style of solving problems.

Two messages lie at the heart of this paper: (i) the early history of programming languages, and the ALGOL60 effort in particular, can be perceived as a dichotomy between specialization and generalization, and (ii) Dijkstra's continual appeal for generalization led to practical breakthroughs in compiler technology. Specialization, as promoted by Bauer, Samelson, Strachey, and Wilkes, refers to language restrictions, static solutions, and the exploitation of machine-specific facilities --in the interest of efficiency. Generalization, as promoted by Van Wijngaarden and Dijkstra, refers to general language constructs, dynamic solutions, and machine-independent language design --in the interest of correctness and reliability.