Programming is an Engineering Profession (Primary source)
This paper argues that programming should evolve from a craft into a true engineering profession. Tony Hoare draws analogies between programmers and traditional craftsmen who are skilled but lack a strong theoretical foundation.
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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“The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”
— 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“In all branches of commerce and industry, history shows dramatic reduction in the error rates when their cost is brought back from the customer to the perpetrator.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“It is better to take many injuries, than to give one.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Best use of money is to pay debts.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source