As it turned out, the train I had taken from Nijmegen to Eindhoven arrived late. To make matters worse, I was then unable to find the right office in the university building. When I eventually arrived for my appointment, I was more than half an hour behind schedule. The professor completely ignored my profuse apologies and proceeded to take a full hour for the meeting. It was the first time I met Edsger Wybe Dijkstra. At the time of our meeting in 1975, Dijkstra was 45 years old. The most presti...