“Here is a language so far ahead of its time that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors.”
Tony Hoare
The language in question is ALGOL 60.
Hints on programming-language design (Primary source)
In this paper, Tony Hoare outlines foundational principles for designing programming languages, emphasizing that readability and simplicity are more valuable than clever features or machine optimization.
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“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“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“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 Primary source“Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“That I am a foreigner is not my fault. I would rather have been born here.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Truth was the only daughter of Time.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary sourceComputer programming Admiration