Butler Lampson

ButlerLampson once said, "all problems in Computer Science can be solved by another level of indirection" (sometimes misquoted as YouCanSolveAnyProblemWithAnotherLevelOfIndirection).

Butler's home page is at http://www.research.microsoft.com/lampson/default.htm

Author of HintsForComputerSystemDesign. Recipient of 1992 TuringAward.


In response to YouCanSolveAnyProblemWithAnotherLevelOfIndirection, and some other stuff, SteveHowell said this:

Every computer problem can be solved by addinga layer of indirection.

Every societal problem can be solved by removinga layer of indirection.


RohitKhare's essay http://www.4k-associates.com/IEEE-L7-names-trust.html says that Butler Lampson was quoting David Wheeler, who worked on EDSAC at the University of Cambridge and who invented the SubRoutine. See YetAnotherIndirection, if you want to find out more on David Wheeler ;)


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