In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
ALAN PERLISThere are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
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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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.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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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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You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Dealing with failure is easy.
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A language that doesn’t affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
ALAN PERLIS