Optimization hinders evolution.
ALAN PERLISIn man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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I think it is inevitable that people program poorly.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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Don’t have good ideas if you aren’t willing to be responsible for them.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland, but that’s because it’s the best book on anything for the layman.
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It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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One man’s constant is another man’s variable.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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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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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed – it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
ALAN PERLIS