Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches.
ALAN PERLISOne can’t proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
-
-
Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
ALAN PERLIS -
A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
ALAN PERLIS -
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
ALAN PERLIS -
Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
ALAN PERLIS -
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
ALAN PERLIS -
Optimization hinders evolution.
ALAN PERLIS -
You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
ALAN PERLIS -
If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
ALAN PERLIS -
Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn’t.
ALAN PERLIS -
C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
ALAN PERLIS -
Dealing with failure is easy.
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 -
In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
ALAN PERLIS -
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
ALAN PERLIS -
It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
ALAN PERLIS