Computer Language Quotes - Page 8

• I, myself, have had many failures and I've learned that if you are not failing a lot, you are probably not being as creative as you could be -you aren't stretching your imagination.

  John Backus

  Learning, Imagination, Creative

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• I can only think that the book is read because it deals with the difficulties of schooling, which do not change. Please note: the difficulties, not the problems. Problems are solved or disappear with the revolving times. Difficulities remain. It will always be difficult to teach well, to learn accurately; to read, write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and start one's education or anothers.

  Jacques Barzun

  Book, Writing, Learning

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• Object-oriented programming as it emerged in Simula 67 allows software structure to be based on real-world structures, and gives programmers a powerful way to simplify the design and construction of complex programs.

  David Gelernter

  Powerful, Real, Learning

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• First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

  Hal Abelson

  Ideas, People, Firsts

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• One of the most important and fascinating of all computer languages is Lisp (standing for "List Processing"), which was invented by John McCarthy around the time Algol was invented.

  Douglas Hofstadter

  Important, Lists, Language

  "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid". Book by Douglas Hofstadter, 1979.

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• Never hesitate to ask a lesser person.

  Confucius

  Learning, Chinese, Programming

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• In those days [batch processing] programmers never even documented their programs, because it was assumed that nobody else would ever use them. Now, however, time-sharing had made exchanging software trivial: you just stored one copy in the public repository and therby effectively gave it to the world. Immediately people began to document their programs and to think of them as being usable by others. They started to build on each other's work.

  Robert Fano

  Learning, Thinking, People

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• Composing computer programs to solve scientific problems is like writing poetry. You must choose every word with care and link it with the other words in perfect syntax. There is no place for verbosity or carelessness. To become fluent in a computer lnaguage demands almost the antithesis of modern loose thinking. It requires many interactive sessions, the hands-on use of the device. You do not learn a foreign language from a book, rather you have to live in the country for year to let the langauge become an automatic part of you, and the same is true for computer languages.

  James Lovelock

  Country, Book, Writing

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• So many computer languages try to force you into one way of thinking and Perl is very much the opposite of that approach. It's kind of like a, well, sometimes Perl has been called the Swiss army chainsaw of the internet, but it's more like a Swiss army machine shop. It really gives you a lot of tools, some of which are dangerous, but it lets you get your job done very quickly.

  Larry Wall

  Jobs, Army, Thinking

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Human languages tend to be much more ambiguous than computer languages because humans are much smarter about interpreting the context.

  Larry Wall

  Language, Computer, Ambiguous

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

  Larry Wall

  Language, Computer, Easy

  Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall, Jon Orwant (2012). “Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and Scripting”, p.23, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Whereas smaller computer languages have features designed into them, C++ is unusual in having a whole swathe of functionality discovered, like a tract of 19th century Africa.

  Verity Stob

  Language, Computer, Unusual

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• Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end.

  Khalil Gibran

  Learning, Ends, Programming

  Khalil Gibran (2007). “Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces”

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• Computer languages of the future will be more concerned with goals and less with procedures specified by the programmer.

  Marvin Minsky

  Goal, Language, Computer

  Turing Award Lectures Year Awarded 1969, dl.acm.org. 2007.

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• [Emacs] is written in Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful.

  Neal Stephenson

  Beautiful, Language, Computer

  "In the Beginning... Was the Command Line". Essay by Neal Stephenson, 1999.

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• But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good reason for leaving capabilities out of Perl.

  Larry Wall

  Leaving, Abuse, May

  Usenet article <199709251614.JAA15718@wall.org>, 1997.

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• You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.

  Larry Wall

  Language, Computer, Prove

  Usenet article <199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org>, 1997.

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• Although our grammar schools are teaching a whole generation computer language to adjust to the technological needs of a Stage II [post survival-focused] society, we have neglected to teach this generation relationship language and conflict resolution skills to address the social and psychological needs of a Stage II society. And when it is taught, in countries like Germany, although called social competence it focuses on workplace teamwork - still on survival, breadwinner oriented work goals.

  Warren Farrell

  Teamwork, Country, Teaching

  "Father and Child Reunion". Book by Warren Farrell, 2001.

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• 95% on content and the computer language remains the same.

  Steve McConnell

  Language, Computer, Remains

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• The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

  Larry Wall

  Purpose, Language, Computer

  "Scripting on the Lido Deck" by Steve Silberman, www.wired.com. October 1, 2000.

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