Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake
Tony Hoare introduced Null references in ALGOL W back in 1965 “simply because it was so easy to implement”, says Mr. Hoare. He talks about that decision considering it “my billion-dollar mistake”.
InfoQ
InfoQ
Editor Specific Content View
All of Tony Hoare's Content on InfoQ
Latest featured content by Tony Hoare
A Conversation with Sr. Tony Hoare
Sir Tony Hoare answers questions about his background, his relationship with Microsoft Research, his interest in "Unifying Theories of Programming," and numerous other topics in the area of programming, correctness, formal analysis of programs, and even type systems. Also addressed: concurrency, null-references, and even buffer overflows.
The Science of Computing and the Engineering of Software
Sir Tony Hoare discusses the relationship between the science of computing and the engineering of software. First, he looks at the general concerns of science (e.g. long term, ideal, formality) and engineering (e.g. short-term, adequacy, and dependability) before delving on the interdependencies of the two viewpoints. He concludes with a vision of what software will be like: "Someday ...".
