David Wheeler (computer scientist)

David John Wheeler (9 February 1927 – 13 December 2004) was a computer scientist and professor of computer science at the University of Cambridge.

Wheeler (first row, second from right, 1949)

Quotes

• Any problem in computer science can be solved with another level of indirection.
  • Attributed to David Wheeler by Butler Lampson in his Turing Lecture (17 February 1993)
  • Lampson uses the phrase without attribution in Authentication in distributed systems: theory and practice (November 1992)

• Compatibility means deliberately repeating other people's mistakes.
  • Cofta, Piotr (2007-09-27) (in en). Trust, Complexity and Control: Confidence in a Convergent World. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470517840.