In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
ALAN PERLISComputer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
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One can’t proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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That it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
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Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
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You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
ALAN PERLIS