“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 PERLISIn software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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I think it is inevitable that people program poorly.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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I don’t think we are. I think we’re responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house.
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Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed – it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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That it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
ALAN PERLIS






