Erik Naggum Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• The fundamental deficiency in HTML is that it reduces hypertext and the intertwinedness of human communication to a question of how it is rendered and what happens when you click on it. ... HTML is to the browser what PostScript is to the laser printer.

  Erik Naggum

  Communication, Html, Fundamentals

  "LISP and AI". Usenet article, groups.google.com. May 10, 2000.

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• Suppose we blasted all politicians into space. Would the SETI project find even one of them?

  Erik Naggum

  Space, Politician, Projects

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• I have come to believe that large print, thick and heavy paper, and wide margins and oversize leading is indicative of the expected intelligence of the reader. … Compare children's books and books on Web Duhsign or other X-in-21-days books. If the reading level of a specification is below college level, chances are the people behind it are morons and the result morose.

  Erik Naggum

  Children, Believe, Book

  Re: "Well, I want to switch over to replace EMACS LISP with Guile." (Usenet article), groups.google.com. September 30, 2002.

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• Life is too long to be good at C++ – if you had spent all that time to become good at it, you would essentially have to work with it, too, to get back the costs, and that would just be some long, drawn-out torture.

  Erik Naggum

  Long, Cost, Life Is

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• C being what it is lacks support for multiple return values, so the notion that it is meaningful to pass pointers to memory objects into which any random function may write random values without having a clue where they point, has not been debunked as the sheer idiocy it really is.

  Erik Naggum

  Meaningful, Memories, Writing

  Re: Allegro CL foreign function interface (Usenet article), groups.google.com. June 14, 2000.

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• Sufficiently advanced political correctness is indistinguishable from sarcasm.

  Erik Naggum

  Sarcasm, Political, Political Correctness

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• A word says more than a thousand images. Exercises for the visually inclined: illustrate "appreciation", "humor", "software", "education", "inalienable rights", "elegance", "fact".

  Erik Naggum

  Appreciation, Exercise, Rights

  Re: Emacs inferior to XEmacs? (Usenet article), groups.google.com. November 8, 1996.

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• The ultimate laziness is not using Perl. That saves you so much work you wouldn't believe it if you had never tried it.

  Erik Naggum

  Believe, Laziness, Ultimate

  Re: Lisp as glue language? (Usenet article), groups.google.com. November 21, 2000.

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• If Perl is the solution, you're solving the wrong problem.

  Erik Naggum

  Problem, Solutions, Ifs

  Re: Q: on hashes and counting (Usenet article), groups.google.com. October 19, 2000.

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• Constructing a social system that tends to those who agree with it is a piece of cake compared to constructing one that makes those who disagree with it want to obey its principles.

  Erik Naggum

  Cake, Principles, Pieces

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• Elegance is necessarily unnatural, only achieveable at great expense. If you just do something, it won't be elegant, but if you do it and then see what might be more elegant, and do it again, you might, after an unknown number of iterations, get something that is very elegant.

  Erik Naggum

  Numbers, Might, Elegance

  "Filk, puns, and other time wasting". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. October 25, 1998.

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• What I actually admire in Perl is its ability to provide a very successful abstraction of the horrible mess that is collectively called Unix.

  Erik Naggum

  Successful, Unix, Admire

  "Using Lisp to Call another program in linux?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. November 11, 2002.

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• Contrary to the foolish notion that syntax is immaterial, people optimize the way they express themselves, and so express themselves differently with different syntaxes.

  Erik Naggum

  People, Different, Syntax

  "S-exp vs XML, HTML, LaTeX (was: Why lisp is growing)". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. December 12, 2002.

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• Let's just hope that all the world is run by Bill Gates before the Perl hackers can destroy it.

  Erik Naggum

  Running, World, Bills

  "Perl embedded in emacs". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. January 10, 1998.

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• If car manufacturers made cars according to spec the same way software vendors make software according to spec, all five wheels would be of widely differing sizes, it would take one person to steer and another to work the pedals and yet another to operate the user-friendly menu-driven dashboard, and if it would not drive straight ahead without a lot of effort, civil engineers would respond by building spiraling roads around each city.

  Erik Naggum

  Cities, Car, Effort

  "What obstacles do Common Lisp programmers face?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. January 12, 2002.

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• All experience has taught us that solving a complex problem uncovers hidden assumptions and ever more knowledge, trade-offs that we didn't anticipate but which can make the difference between meeting a deadline and going into research mode for a year, etc.

  Erik Naggum

  Years, Taught Us, Differences

  "Is CLOS reall OO?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. May 5, 1998.

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• Structure is nothing if it is all you got. Skeletons spook people if they try to walk around on their own. I really wonder why XML does not.

  Erik Naggum

  Skeletons, People, Trying

  "The horror that is XML". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. March 7, 2002.

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• The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the aspects you are willing to accept.

  Erik Naggum

  Important, Accepting, Aspect

  "S-exp vs XML, HTML, LaTeX (was: Why lisp is growing)". Usenet article, groups.google.com. December 28, 2002.

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• Very clever implementation techniques are required to implement this insanity correctly and usefully, not to mention that code written with this feature used and abused east and west is exceptionally exciting to debug.

  Erik Naggum

  Clever, Used And Abused, Insanity

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• Counting lines is probably a good idea if you want to print it out and are short on paper, but I fail to see the purpose otherwise.

  Erik Naggum

  Ideas, Purpose, Paper

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• Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.

  Erik Naggum

  Art, Kings, Writing

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• Those who write software only for pay should go hurt some other field.

  Erik Naggum

  Hurt, Writing, Pay

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• A system needs to be alive and workable even when other people than the first enthusiasts start using it. Reinvention and revolution are enthusiast stuff. Invention and evolution are engineering.

  Erik Naggum

  Engineering, People, Needs

  "Well, I want to switch over to replace EMACS LISP with Guile". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. September 28, 2002.

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• C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go by guesswork and ignorance.

  Erik Naggum

  Liars, Ignorance, People

  "Is CLOS reall OO?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. May 5, 1998.

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• Sometimes, the only way to learn something really well is to revert to the state of mind of a novice and reawaken to the raw observations that you have accumulated instead of relying on the conclusions you have reached from the exogenous premises absorbed through teaching and bookish learning.

  Erik Naggum

  Teaching, Mind, Novices

  Re: Guide to Lisp, v1.20 (Usenet article), groups.google.com. August 28, 2002.

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