FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed – it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
ALAN PERLISTo understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
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Are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
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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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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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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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Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can’t.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
ALAN PERLIS