Anders Hejlsberg Quotes

However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions.

Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.

As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.

Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting.

FreeBSD has a nicely tuned network stack and extremely good reliability.

In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.

(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)

Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cause of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done.

I appreciate all the devices the Windows people are coming up with, but the operating system... I just want to smash it.

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.

When you make mistakes during routines, it's not easy getting through them.

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.

In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems.

I used to be interested in Windows NT, but the more I see it, the more it looks like traditional Windows with a stabler kernel. I don't find anything technically interesting there.

Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail.

I think the first things that are relevant are that things should work well; they should function.

When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause.

It's important to be informed about issues like usability, reliability, security, privacy, and some of the inherent limitations of computers.

Hardware works best when it matters the least.

To write a kernel without a data structure and have it be as consistent and graceful as UNIX would have been a much, much harder challenge.

For the robust, an error is information.

People appreciate a good product, a stable system. They want to communicate easily and use a product that just works.

People crave predictability, and when you design and use systems, you give people predictability. More importantly, when you build systems, they can help you orchestrate, and orchestration helps you create the habits that continuously improve the systems!

Microsoft's new OS, Windows 7, may finally be a worthy successor to XP, eliminating the clutter of Vista and letting users get to what they want to use without the fuss. All this, while remaining compatible with their IT departments' demands for scalability and custom implementations.

Corporations want stable, reliable, and easy-to-maintain systems.