Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake

As cited in DDIA

Tony Hoare. "Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake." At QCon London, March 2009.

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Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake - InfoQ

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".

From the page's own metadata at infoq.com, 2026-08-29.

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