“I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965.”
Tony Hoare
Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake (Primary source)
A conference presentation where Tony Hoare reflects on his 1965 introduction of the null reference in ALGOL W, candidly calling it his “billion-dollar mistake” due to the widespread software errors and system crashes it has caused over the decades.
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“I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language (ALGOL W). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years.”
Tony Hoare
“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.”
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— Tony Hoare Primary source“The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”
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— Jack London Primary sourceNull Software Design Reliability