Ken Thompson Quotes

Quotes about:

• One of my most productive days was throwing away 1,000 lines of code.

  Ken Thompson

  Great Day, Lines, Computer

  68 Copy quote

• You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself.

  Ken Thompson

  Trust, Programming, Code

  "Reflections on Trusting Trust". Communications of the ACM 27 (8), (pp. 761-763), August 1984.

  18 Copy quote

• When in doubt, use brute force.

  Ken Thompson

  Doubt, Use, Programming

  22 Copy quote

• It's always good to take an orthogonal view of something. It develops ideas.

  Ken Thompson

  Views, Ideas, Brilliant

  20 Copy quote

• I think the major good idea in Unix was its clean and simple interface: open, close, read, and write.

  Ken Thompson

  Writing, Thinking, Simple

  "Unix and Beyond: An Interview with Ken Thompson". Computer 32 (5), (pp. 58-64), May 1999.

  18 Copy quote

• FORTRAN was the language of choice for the same reason that three-legged races are popular.

  Ken Thompson

  Race, Choices, Three

  1983 Turing Award Lecture, "Communications of the ACM" 27 (8), (pp. 761-763), August 1984.

  11 Copy quote

• If you want to go somewhere, goto is the best way to get there.

  Ken Thompson

  Want, Way, Programming

  19 Copy quote

• No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.

  Ken Thompson

  Levels, Scrutiny, Source

  "Reflections on Trusting Trust". Communications of the ACM 27 (8), (pp. 761-763), August 1984.

  16 Copy quote

• We have persistent objects, they're called files.

  Ken Thompson

  Persistent, Files, Objects

  19 Copy quote

• I view Linux as something that's not Microsoft - a backlash against Microsoft, no more and no less.

  Ken Thompson

  Views, Microsoft, Linux

  "Unix and Beyond: An Interview with Ken Thompson". Computer 32 (5), (pp. 58-64), May 1999.

  11 Copy quote

• The average gardener probably knows little about what is going on in his or her garden.

  Ken Thompson

  Garden, Average, Littles

  10 Copy quote

• I am a very bottom-up thinker.

  Ken Thompson

  Thinker, Bottom

  "Unix and Beyond: An Interview with Ken Thompson". Computer 32 (5), (pp. 58-64), May 1999.

  12 Copy quote

• I wanted to separate data from programs, because data and instructions are very different.

  Ken Thompson

  Data, Different, Separation

  8 Copy quote

• The X server has to be the biggest program I've ever seen that doesn't do anything for you.

  Ken Thompson

  Program, Programming, Server

  14 Copy quote

• The steady state of disks is full.

  Ken Thompson

  Humorous, States, Steady

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• SCCS, the source motel! Programs check in and never check out!

  Ken Thompson

  Humorous, Program, Checks

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• I don't think there are many people up in research who have strong ideas about things that they haven't really had experience with.

  Ken Thompson

  Strong, Thinking, Ideas

  16 Copy quote

• In fact, we started off with two or three different shells and the shell had life of its own.

  Ken Thompson

  Two, Facts, Different

  13 Copy quote

• In college, before video games, we would amuse ourselves by posing programming exercises.

  Ken Thompson

  Exercise, College, Games

  14 Copy quote

• I have to keep up with the scientific literature as part of my job, but increasingly I found myself reading things that weren't really relevant to my academic work, but were relevant to gardening.

  Ken Thompson

  Jobs, Reading, Gardening

  14 Copy quote

• It is only the inadequacy of the criminal code that saves the hackers from very serious prosecution.

  Ken Thompson

  Criminals, Serious, Hackers

  58 Copy quote

• A well installed microcode bug will be almost impossible to detect.

  Ken Thompson

  Bugs, Impossible, Wells

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• There's a lot of power in executing data - generating data and executing data.

  Ken Thompson

  Power, Data, Executing

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• I wanted to avoid, special IO for terminals.

  Ken Thompson

  Ios, Special, Wanted

  8 Copy quote

• On the one hand, the press, television, and movies make heroes of vandals by calling them whiz kids.

  Ken Thompson

  Movie, Hero, Kids

  5 Copy quote

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