“I realised that both verification and testing were using the same technology—assertions—on a common goal of improving software products in their speed of delivery, their quality, and their reliability.”
Tony Hoare (verified)
Theories of Programming: The Life & Works of Tony Hoare (Primary source)
In the final chapter, Tony Hoare reflects personally on his career and contributions, emphasizing humility, collaboration, and the enduring importance of clear thinking and formal reasoning in programming. He encourages future generations to pursue both rigorous theory and practical impact with curiosity and generosity.
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“The scales fell from my eyes. I realised that both verification and testing were using the same technology—assertions—on a common goal of improving software products in their speed of delivery, their quality, and their reliability. Ever since then I have renounced all the principles which I preached as an academic, about the superior results of proving programs instead of testing them. I would concentrate instead on reconciling these two previously opposing positions.”
Tony Hoare (verified)
“There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”
— Tony Hoare (verified)“The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”
— Tony Hoare (verified)“What is the central core of the subject [computer science]? What is it that distinguishes it from the separate subjects with which it is related? What is the linking thread which gathers these disparate branches into a single discipline? My answer to these questions is simple—it is the art of programming a computer.”
— Tony Hoare (verified)“I was eventually persuaded of the need to design programming notations so as to maximize the number of errors which cannot be made, or if made, can be reliably detected at compile time.”
— Tony Hoare (verified)“Beauty is the quality which makes to endure.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Understanding is a two-way street.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt (unverified)“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“It’s common for men to give pretended reasons instead of one real one.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)