Tony Hoare has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#11

Post by nextos » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC

jlhawn wrote: post #8

nextos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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...

It was edited again a few minutes ago and now displays Sunday, March 8th as his date of death.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#12

Post by reenorap » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC

Once verified, I definitely think the creator of Quicksort deserves a black bar.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#13

Post by wging » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

butterisgood wrote: post #9

Wikipedia seems to say he passed yesterday.

But there are no citations on any of the edits claiming this, and there were two incompatible dates claimed (March 5, March 8).

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#14

Post by bitwize » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:24 PM UTC

Time for a black band.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#15

Post by hinkley » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:25 PM UTC

@dang is there such a thing as a double black bar? Because we need one for Tony.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#16

Post by behehebd » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:25 PM UTC

spooneybarger wrote: post #7

arn3n wrote: post #2

Pardon if I’m dumb/missed something: Is Tony Hoare dead? I see no news anywhere.

Yes. He died last week.

Any link to information?

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#17

Post by hinkley » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:28 PM UTC

arn3n wrote: post #2

Pardon if I’m dumb/missed something: Is Tony Hoare dead? I see no news anywhere.

His Wikipedia page is still worded in the present tense. People tend to be johnny on the spot about that so maybe not?

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#18

Post by hinkley » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

butterisgood wrote: post #9

Wikipedia seems to say he passed yesterday.

At this exact moment it looks like those edits may have been reverted.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#19

Post by hinkley » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:31 PM UTC

reenorap wrote: post #12

Once verified, I definitely think the creator of Quicksort deserves a black bar.

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.

Re: Tony Hoare has died

#20

Post by pyuser583 » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 11:33 PM UTC

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.