“The real value of tests is not that they detect bugs in the code, but that they detect inadequacies in the methods, concentration, and skills of those who design and produce the code.”
Tony Hoare
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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“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 price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“I realised that both verification and testing were using the same technology—assertions—on a common goal of improving software products in their speed of delivery, their quality, and their reliability.”
— Tony Hoare Primary source“There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Disputed“Those who will not be counselled, cannot be helped.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?”
— Ayn Rand Primary source