“The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intentions of its user.”
Tony Hoare
An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming (Primary source)
Tony Hoare’s seminal paper lays the groundwork for formal program verification by introducing Hoare logic, a method that uses preconditions, postconditions, and assertions to reason about program correctness.
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“The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intentions of its user. If these intentions can be described rigorously by making assertions about the values of variables at the end (or at intermediate points) of the execution of the program, then the techniques described in this paper may be used to prove the correctness of the program, provided that the implementation of the programming language conforms to the axioms and rules which have been used in the proof.”
Tony Hoare
“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“The man who is good at making an excuse, is seldom good at any thing else.”
— Benjamin Franklin Secondary source“It is important to make a dream of life and a dream reality.”
— Marie Curie Disputed“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary sourceSoftware Design Computer Programming