“Computer programming is like doing crossword puzzles, and being paid for it”
Tony Hoare
Computer Science (Primary source)
Tony Hoare’s 1971 inaugural lecture at Queen’s University Belfast where he aims to explain the nature and significance of computer science to a general audience by focusing on the central activity of the discipline: computer programming.
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“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 Primary source“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 Primary source“The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“A crude measure of the simplicity of an engineering tool is the length of the manual required to give a full and complete account of how to use it and avoid misusing it.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving, it sets you above him.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The absolute truth is that if you don’t know what you want, you won’t get it”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“Being able to recognize that you are wrong is a godsend.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary sourceProblems Understanding Computer Science Analysis