I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing.
ALAN PERLISIt is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
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Dealing with failure is easy.
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Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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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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You’ve solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
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Banality soothes our nerves.
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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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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
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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 a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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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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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
ALAN PERLIS






