“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
“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“You don’t need to take the last dollar.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Bond didn’t defend the practice. He simply maintained that the more effort and ingenuity you put into gambling, the more you took out.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“If you have time don’t wait for time.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Finally, I said that I couldn’t see how anyone could he educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, and teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything.”
— Richard Feynman Primary sourceNull Software Design Reliability