You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
ALAN PERLISIt is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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Banality soothes our nerves.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
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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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We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
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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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You’ve solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
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Is it possible that software is not like anything else.
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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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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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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.
ALAN PERLIS