When someone says, “I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done,” give him a lollipop.
ALAN PERLISWhen a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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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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Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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In English every word can be verbed.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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Dealing with failure is easy.
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It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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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Any noun can be verbed.
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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed – it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
ALAN PERLIS