You think you KNOW when you learn.
ALAN PERLISIn the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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Is it possible that software is not like anything else.
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One man’s constant is another man’s variable.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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I think it is inevitable that people program poorly.
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I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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Are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?
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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 programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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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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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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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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Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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Don’t have good ideas if you aren’t willing to be responsible for them.
ALAN PERLIS