Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
ALAN PERLISAdapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
-
-
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
ALAN PERLIS -
There is no such thing as a free variable.
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 -
In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
ALAN PERLIS -
Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
ALAN PERLIS -
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.
ALAN PERLIS -
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
ALAN PERLIS -
One can’t proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
ALAN PERLIS -
Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
ALAN PERLIS -
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.
ALAN PERLIS -
You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
ALAN PERLIS -
What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?
ALAN PERLIS -
Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
ALAN PERLIS -
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
ALAN PERLIS -
Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
ALAN PERLIS