3 ms·
I am somewhat serious about this. Tony Hoare even called them his "Billion Dollar mistake" in a talk he gave a while ago (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Nul
by ufo 15y ago
I am somewhat serious about this. Tony Hoare even called them his "Billion Dollar mistake" in a talk he gave a while ago (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Null-References-The-Billion-Dollar-Mistake-Tony-Hoare http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Null-References-The-Billi...)
- barrybe 15y agoThat talk gets quoted pretty often, but it's a bit silly for Hoare to take all the blame/credit. Null references were discovered, not invented. They are so easy (from the point of view of someone implementing a non-functional language) that they were inevitable.