There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
ALAN PERLISIf a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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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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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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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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You’ve solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
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Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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“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.
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I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing.
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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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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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That it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
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Banality soothes our nerves.
ALAN PERLIS