How Did Software Get So Reliable Without Proof? (Primary source)
Despite early fears that software systems would be too error-prone to scale, modern software has become remarkably reliable. This reliability emerged not from widespread formal proofs, but from sound engineering practices like rigorous project management, comprehensive testing, and defensive design.
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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“I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Industry pays debts, despair increases them.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source