In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
ALAN PERLISAre more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
-
-
A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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 PERLIS -
I think it is inevitable that people program poorly.
ALAN PERLIS -
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
ALAN PERLIS -
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
ALAN PERLIS -
I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing.
ALAN PERLIS -
Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
ALAN PERLIS -
Dealing with failure is easy.
ALAN PERLIS -
If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
ALAN PERLIS -
Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
ALAN PERLIS -
In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word “frustration”.
ALAN PERLIS -
In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
ALAN PERLIS -
One can’t proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
ALAN PERLIS -
“Toward what end, toward what end?”-but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
ALAN PERLIS -
A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
ALAN PERLIS






