Alan Perlis on anything
Alan Perlis73 quotes · See all“The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland, but that’s because it’s the best book on anything for the layman.”
Filed under
More from Alan Perlis
It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis There is no such thing as a free variable.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis You’ve solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Every reader should ask himself periodically.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis One can only display complex information in the mind.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word “frustration”.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis
Original quotes
From our community writers
My heart keeps room for you always even when you can’t be here.
Holly DuxburyHolly Duxbury You are seeing humanity at its worst and best. A collision of the circumstance.
Samantha King HolmesSamantha King Holmes Treat her like a dream. Follow her, pursue her, and always remind her that you’ll never give up on her.
Jenny AJenny A I care but I’m done trying. I love but I’m done showing.
Divya khandalDivya khandal Never feel defined by your size, measures, and beauty standards.
Jacklyn TysonJacklyn Tyson The wild is always changing like a reminder. You do not have to be the same to be beautiful.
Sabina LauraSabina Laura Bees and butterflies in my belly with you on my mind they chase each other around.
Jenny WinbladhJenny Winbladh I long for you but you long for someone else, I deny the one who wants me cause I want someone else.
Rupi KaurRupi Kaur
Meet the writers
More on anything
Love is, after all, a selfish thing; and it throws a black shadow on anything between which and the light it stands.
Bram StokerBram Stoker I don’t want to do anything over again, ever again. I want only to do what I haven’t done. There’s no “again.” There’s only the future. I hate the past – especially my own past.
Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld Is anything sadder than a trainThat leaves when it’s supposed to,That has only one voice,Only one route?There’s nothing sadder.Except perhaps a cart horse,Shut between two shaftsAnd unable even to look sideways.
Primo LeviPrimo Levi No one’s promised anything. You could have the biggest record on radio and sell no records.
NasNas I never drink anything hot; I don’t like hot drinks, very strange.
Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld It has become a certainty now that if you will only advertise sufficiently you may make a fortune by selling anything.
Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope If faces were different when lit from above or below — what was a face? What was anything?
William GoldingWilliam Golding At my age, I’m just happy to be named the greatest living anything.
Joe DiMaggioJoe DiMaggio