“Toward what end, toward what end?”-but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
ALAN PERLISWe are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat’s next-to-last theorem.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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I think it is inevitable that people program poorly.
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Banality soothes our nerves.
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Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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A picture is worth 10K words – but only those to describe the picture.
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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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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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.
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If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word “frustration”.
ALAN PERLIS