danga month ago
I've merged the comments into this thread now: Tony Hoare has died - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324054.
Normally we'd try to re-up the earliest submission of a story, but in this case the article had little information, while the other post is nicely personal and detailed. I've left below the comments which were (understandably) debating whether the news was true or not.
(Just to be clear: this is not a criticism! It's an important story, nextos is a fine contributor, and the submission was entirely understandable.)
EdNuttinga month ago
This post appears to have been hidden from the front page of HN?
danga month ago
Yes, it was submitted before the news had been confirmed. More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47327440.
zombota month ago
No black band at the op of HN? Is that only for rich people?
danga month ago
I hope you've noticed which story has been at the top of HN all day today, and how lovely the comments in it are.
[deleted]a month agocollapsed
butterisgooda month ago
Wikipedia seems to say he passed yesterday.
wginga month ago
But there are no citations on any of the edits claiming this, and there were two incompatible dates claimed (March 5, March 8).
hinkleya month ago
At this exact moment it looks like those edits may have been reverted.
pyuser583a month ago
Even now his Oxford bio lists him as alive, by his Royal Society bio lists him as deceased.
arn3na month ago
Pardon if I’m dumb/missed something: Is Tony Hoare dead? I see no news anywhere.
Jtsummersa month ago
I can't find any news either, but that is the claim of this submission.
> Jonathan Bowen informed me of Tony Hoare's death on Thursday, March 5th. (translated from French)
The main reason to find it surprising is that it's now 4 days since then, I'd have expected something to have been published besides this page.intuitionista month ago
Sadly it seems to be true. Heard it late last week from a coworker in a position to know.
tibbara month ago
That is the claim of the post. I also don't see confirmation elsewhere
nextosopa month ago
There is very little information around, this is the most authoritative post I could find. There are some comments on X as well.
According to this blogpost, he sadly passed away last Thursday, March 5th.
jlhawna month ago
There were a few recent edits about this on Tony Hoar's Wikipedia page which were reverted because there was no substantial evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tony_Hoare&action...
[deleted]a month agocollapsed
nextosopa month ago
It was edited again a few minutes ago and now displays Sunday, March 8th as his date of death.
codethiefa month ago
And it's gone again!
hinkleya month ago
His Wikipedia page is still worded in the present tense. People tend to be johnny on the spot about that so maybe not?
csb6a month ago
The blog author says that Jonathan Bowen informed them, so it is possible it hasn't been officially announced.
spooneybargera month ago
Yes. He died last week.
rvza month ago
RIP Tony Hoare.
Legendary Turing Award Winner.
behehebda month ago
Any link to information?
spooneybargera month ago
Came through personal contact who is close to the family.
pyuser583a month ago
Wikipedia is reporting him as deceased, but there’s a bit of an editing war going on. No source is cited for his death, and and it’s going back and forth.
reenorapa month ago
Once verified, I definitely think the creator of Quicksort deserves a black bar.
hinkleya month ago
Tony Hoare documented almost every form of concurrency primitive that we have in modern software. Pretty much everything prior to Rust's ownership semantics was written down in some form or under another name by Tony in the early 1970's.
jacquesma month ago
It goes a lot further than Quicksort.
jonstewarta month ago
Yes, make it black.
penguin_boozea month ago
I found this link elsewhere. But then I went to his wikipedia page; it doesn't seem to have any mention of date of demise.
bitwizea month ago
Time for a black band.
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hinkleya month ago
@dang is there such a thing as a double black bar? Because we need one for Tony.
toomuchtodoa month ago
Tags do nothing, email the mods if desired. Bottom bar has deets (“contact”).
godd2a month ago
What is a black bar?
john_strinlaia month ago
when a significant figure in the tech/science community dies, hn will sometimes place a thin black bar at the top of the page in memoriam