Brian Kernighan Quotes

• Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

  Brian Kernighan

  Inspirational, Funny, Smart

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• Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.

  Brian Kernighan

  Technology, Essence, Simplicity

  Brian W. Kernighan (1981). “Software Tools in Pascal”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

  Brian Kernighan

  Tools, Debugging, Programming

  "Unix for Beginners". Paper by Brian Kernighan, 1979.

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• Do what you think is interesting, do something that you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise you won't do it well anyway.

  Brian Kernighan

  Fun, Thinking, Interesting

  Interview with Mihai Budiu, www.cs.cmu.edu. July 2000.

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• 90% of the functionality delivered now is better than 100% delivered never.

  Brian Kernighan

  Functionality

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• C is a razor-sharp tool, with which one can create an elegant and efficient program or a bloody mess.

  Brian Kernighan

  Tools, Razors, Program

  Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike (1999). “The Practice of Programming”, p.71, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it takes no more than a few sentences, followed by an embarrassed "Never mind, I see what's wrong. Sorry to bother you." This works remarkably well; you can even use non-programmers as listeners. One university computer center kept a teddy bear near the help desk. Students with mysterious bugs were required to explain them to the bear before they could speak to a human counselor.

  Brian Kernighan

  Sorry, Learning, Mind

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• Believe the terrain, not the map

  Brian Kernighan

  Believe, Maps, Terrain

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• Don't document bad code - rewrite it.

  Brian Kernighan

  Code Quality, Programming, Software Engineering

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• ... it is a fundamental principle of testing that you must know in advance the answer each test case is supposed to produce. If you don't, you are not testing; you are experimenting.

  Brian Kernighan

  Principles, Fundamentals, Answers

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• Mechanical rules are never a substitute for clarity of thought.

  Brian Kernighan

  Clarity, Clarity Of Thought, Substitutes

  Brian W. Kernighan (1976). “Software Tools”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs.

  Brian Kernighan

  Class, Debugging, Bugs

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• An effective way to test code is to exercise it at its natural boundaries

  Brian Kernighan

  Exercise, Tests, Way

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• If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

  Brian Kernighan

  Clever, Writing, Debugging

  Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger (1978). “The Elements of Programming Style”, Computing McGraw-Hill

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• If you had done something twice, you are likely to do it again.

  Brian Kernighan

  Done, Mathematics, Mathematical

  Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike (1984). “The UNIX Programming Environment”, Prentice Hall

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• Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.

  Brian Kernighan

  Trying, Purpose, Defeat

  Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger (1978). “The Elements of Programming Style”, Computing McGraw-Hill

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• As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way.

  Brian Kernighan

  Way, Firsts, Language

  Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie (1988). “C Programming Language”, p.13, Prentice Hall

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• Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?

  Brian Kernighan

  Statistics, Trivia, Efficiency

  Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger (1978). “The Elements of Programming Style”, Computing McGraw-Hill

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• Get the weirdnesses into the data where you can manipulate them easily, and the regularity into the code because regular code is a lot easier to work with

  Brian Kernighan

  Data, Weirdness, Easier

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• Some compilers allow a check during execution that subscripts do not exceed array dimensions. This is a help, but not sufficient. First, many programmers do not use such compilers because They're not efficient. (Presumably, this means that it is vital to get the wrong answers quickly.)

  Brian Kernighan

  Mean, Firsts, Dimensions

  Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger (1978). “The Elements of Programming Style”, Computing McGraw-Hill

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