Billlion Dollar MistakeS - On Tony Hoare and Android Burritos

A presentation where I relate my painful experience discovering through Android Programming and what I learnt from it.

Three messages:

1. Real Mensch own their mistakes
2. Mediocre documentation makes beginners feel stupid
3. My philosophical clash with Android: I don't like Android Burritos, I like simple things that compose well.

Links:

https://dev.to/jmfayard/android-s-billion-dollar-mistake-327b

Quote:

> I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language (ALGOL W). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn't resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years.
> Tony Hoare at QCon London in 2009

Transcript

1. Billion-Dollar Mistakes Tony Hoare and Android Burritos
4. Android has Good Parts
5. Android has Good Parts
6. Focus on $PEOPLE not on $TECH
7. Focus on $PRODUCT not on $TECH
8. TODAY…
9. TODAY… 1. Why it’s good to own your mistakes
10. TODAY… 1. Why it’s good to own your mistakes 2. Why I care deeply about documentation
11. TODAY… 1. Why it’s good to own your mistakes 2. Why I care deeply about documentation 3. Why I really don’t like Android Burritos
12. “I call it my billion-dollar mistake.” Tony Hoare (2009)
13. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn't resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years. “I call it my billion-dollar mistake.” Tony Hoare (2009)
14. Who is Tony Hoare?
15. Who is Tony Hoare? Quicksort Quickselect Communication Sequential Processes Sctructured Programming
16. Who is Tony Hoare? Turing Award Goode Memorial Award Faraday Medal Computer Pioneer Award Kyoto Prize IEE Neumann Medal Quicksort Quickselect Communication Sequential Processes Sctructured Programming
17. Who is Tony Hoare? Turing Award Goode Memorial Award Faraday Medal Computer Pioneer Award Kyoto Prize IEE Neumann Medal Quicksort Quickselect Communication Sequential Processes Sctructured Programming Billion Dollar Mistake
18. Maths Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft are worth $500-$1000 billion
19. There is always a good reason to do nothing
20. There is always a good reason to do nothing "We were after the C++ programmers.” “We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp.” Guy Steele, co-author of the Java spec
21. The Tony Hoare effect
22. The Tony Hoare effect Before: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, …
23. The Tony Hoare effect Before: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, … After: Kotlin, Swift, TypeScript, @Java, …
24. Why I care deeply about good documentation?
25. “Lernen durch Schmerzen”
26. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer
27. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool
28. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM
29. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened
30. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened Smelling code
31. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened Smelling code Slow ⏳
32. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened Smelling code Slow ⏳ Crashes
33. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened Smelling code Slow ⏳ Crashes I can’t write tests
34. “Lernen durch Schmerzen” Junior developer Android is cool RTFM Not enligthened Smelling code Slow ⏳ Crashes I can’t write tests It must be me
35. A turning point The price of ENUMs #PERFMATTERS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzs6OBcvNQE We implemented Enums badly Let’s pass the buck to app developers
36. AHA
37. Everyone is writing crappy code
38. Do as I say, Not as I do
39. Read The Friendly Manual
40. Android Burritos android/camera-sample/BurritoFragment google/google-authenticator/BurritoActivity
41. Android Burritos do everything
42. Android Burritos are hard
43. Android Burritos are buggy
44. Android Burritos are legacy code
45. Android Burritos are still a thing today
46. Android Burritos mislead new programmers
47. Android Burritos Simple things that compose really well
48. Unix Philosophy Simple things that compose really well
49. Music Simple things that compose really well
50. Simple things that compose really well
51. Simple things that compose really well The magic of Music: By combining those simple primitivies, You can build all the music of the world ..like this symphony that 10.000 Japanese sing in German https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6s6YKlTpfw
52. RECAP
53. RECAP 1. Real Mensch own their mistakes
54. RECAP 1. Real Mensch own their mistakes 2. Mediocre documentation makes beginners feel stupid
55. RECAP 1. Real Mensch own their mistakes 2. Mediocre documentation makes beginners feel stupid 3. Simple things that compose well
56. Getting in touch dev.to/jmfayard Slides Article Links Follow me and contact me