“In the development of our understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction.”
Tony Hoare
Structured Programming (Primary source)
This book is a landmark collection of essays authored by Ole-Johan Dahl, Edsger W. Dijkstra, and Tony Hoare. It brings together foundational ideas that reshaped the way software systems were understood, designed, and implemented.
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“In the development of our understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from a recognition of similarities between certain objects, situations, or processes in the real world, and the decision to concentrate on these similarities, and to ignore for the time being the differences.”
Tony Hoare
“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“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 most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intentions of its user.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“You may delay, but time will not.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Good design is durable. It has nothing trendy about it that might be out of date tomorrow. This is one of the major differences between well-designed products and short-lived trivial objects for a throwaway society that can no longer be justified.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
— Thucydides Primary source