Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
ALAN PERLISIf you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
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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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We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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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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Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
ALAN PERLIS