Barbara Liskov
Developed the Liskov Substitution Principle and a pioneer in programming language design.
Most quoted
"If for each object o1 of type S there is an object o2 of type T such that for all programs P defined in terms of T, the behavior of P remains unchanged when o1 is substituted for o2, then S is a subtype of T."
— from A Behavioral Notion of Subtyping, 1994
"If for each object o1 of type S there is an object o2 of type T such that for all programs P defined in terms of T, the behavior of P is unchanged when o1 is substituted for o2 then S is a subtype of T."
— from Paper, 1987
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
— from Attributed (often to Saint-Exupéry, but used in her context)
All quotes by Barbara Liskov (315)
Inheritance should preserve behavioral compatibility.
Life's challenges are like debugging: methodical and iterative.
Security in software demands thinking like an adversary.
Collaboration across disciplines enriches computer science.
Early computers were tools; now they shape society.
Data abstraction hides implementation details effectively.
Humor helps in long coding sessions: 'Why did the programmer quit? Too much to debug!'
Ethics in AI must prioritize human values.
The Thor system advanced persistent object storage.
Personal growth comes from embracing failure in research.
Object-oriented design promotes reusability and maintainability.
In academia, curiosity drives discovery more than fame.
Concurrency models must account for non-determinism.
Balancing work and life is like managing threads: prioritize wisely.
The Liskov-Mitchell principle underscores substitutability.
Teaching CS to beginners is about building confidence first.
Systems that scale must handle partial failures gracefully.
Reflection on one's career reveals patterns of growth.
Programming languages evolve to express ideas more naturally.
Wit in science: 'Computers are like bicycles for the mind, but they crash too!'
Contemporaries of Barbara Liskov
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Barbara Liskov (1939).