We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
ALAN PERLISIf a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
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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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn’t.
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Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle.
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One man’s constant is another man’s variable.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
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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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One can only display complex information in the mind.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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When someone says, “I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done,” give him a lollipop.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
ALAN PERLIS