Programmers Quotes - Page 12

• Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.

  Alan Perlis

  Analysis, Logic, Cases

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• By trade, I am a software programmer, so I never really had any experience with movies before. I started out with 'Paranormal Activity.

  Oren Peli

  Paranormal, Software, Trade

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• Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for the average programmer, you must not fall into the trap of rejecting a surgical technique because it is beyond the capabilities of the barber in his shop around the corner.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Fall, Views, Average

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.163, Springer Science & Business Media

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• To harness the power of television for the education of our nation's children, everyone must get involved - television programmers, government leaders, teachers, and above all, parents.

  Edwin Newman

  Teacher, Children, Government

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• I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.

  Kent Beck

  Feelings, Littles, Responsible

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• When the words are fuzzy, the programmers reflexively retreat to the most precise method of articulation available: source code. Although there is nothing more precise than code, there is also nothing more permanent or resistant to change. So the situation frequently crops up where nomenclature confusion drives programmers to begin coding prematurely, and that code becomes the de facto design, regardless of its appropriateness or correctness.

  Amari Cooper

  Learning, Confusion, Design

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• The system metaphor is a story that everyone--customers, programmers, and managers--can tell about how the system works.

  Kent Beck

  Stories, Metaphor, Customers

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• When building a complex system, having crackerjack programmers (who can make any design work, even a bad one) can be a liability. The result, after lots of effort, is a working system that cannot be easily maintained or upgraded. Good -but not great- programmers would fail early, causing a realization that the system must be redesigned, and then reimplemented. The extra cost is paid once, early in the system's cycle (when it is cheap), instead of repeatedly paid late in the system's cycle (when it is more expensive).

  Richard E. Pattis

  Learning, Design Work, Effort

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• By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.

  Donald Knuth

  Reality, Understanding, Use

  Donald E. Knuth (1997). “The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms”, p.12, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• The Escalation programmers come from a completely different background, and the codebase is all STL this, boost that, fill-up-the-property list, dispatch the event, and delegate that. I had been harboring some suspicions that our big codebases might benefit from the application of some more of the various “modern” C++ design patterns, despite seeing other large game codebases suffer under them. I have since recanted that suspicion.

  John Carmack

  Games, Design, Suffering

  "John Carmack discusses RAGE on iPhone/iPad/iPod" by John Carmack, www.bethblog.com. October 26, 2010.

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• Of course, it's hard to support full-time programmers, so we do get funds from a set of companies that are interested in the health of the Mozilla project and so are willing to support the people working for the Foundation as well.

  Mitchell Baker

  People, Support, Mozilla

  "Mozilla Foundation Chief Mitchell Baker Replies". Interview with Robin "Roblimo" Miller, interviews.slashdot.org. March 23, 2005.

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• An initial underscore already conveys strong feelings of magicalness to a C programmer.

  Larry Wall

  Strong, Feelings, Computer

  Usenet article, 1992.

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• I've always felt that people's ears are wider than programmers are ever wiling to give them credit for. It's always been very important to me that you not have to turn me off because your kids are in the back seat.

  Donnie Simpson

  Kids, People, Giving

  "Special guest Donnie Simpson, more on Pop Culture With Paul Farhi". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. February 2, 2010.

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• C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.

  Linus Torvalds

  Use, Facts, Language

  Message to gmane.comp.version-control.git mailing list, article.gmane.org, September 9, 2007.

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• On every full moon, rituals ... take place on hilltops, beaches, in open fields and in ordinary houses. Writers, teachers, nurses, computer programmers, artists, lawyers, poets, plumbers, and auto mechanics -- women and men from many backgrounds come together to celebrate the mysteries of the Triple Goddess of the Dance of Life. The religion they practice is called Witchcraft.

  Starhawk

  Teacher, Beach, Men

  Starhawk (1999). “Spiral Dance: Slipcase”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• You can effect a change of robbers every four years. Inestimable privilege - to pull off the glutted leech and attach the lean one! And you can not even choose among the lean leeches, but must accept those designated by the programmers and showmen who have the reptiles on tap!

  Ambrose Bierce

  Years, Leeches, Reptiles

  "The Shadow on The Dial and Other Essays". Book by Ambrose Bierce, www.pub22.net. 1909.

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• Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free.

  Richard Stallman

  Breathing, Copying, Natural

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.29, Lulu.com

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• We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Appreciation, Jobs, Humble

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• It's not that Perl programmers are idiots, it's that the language rewards idiotic behavior in a way that no other language or tool has ever done.

  Erik Naggum

  Tools, Done, Rewards

  "Can lisp do what perl does easily?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. March 28, 2000.

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• Programmers work in bursts of productivity. Then, they let the brain rest and get back into it. A lot about the office world is not a great fit for me.

  Marco Arment

  Office, Brain, World

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• There are no standards for computer programmers and no group to certify them.

  David Parnas

  Groups, Computer, Standards

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• It always helps to be a good programmer. It is important to like computers and to be able to think of things people would want to do with their computers.

  Bill Budge

  Thinking, People, Important

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• The programmers have another saying: 'The question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.'

  Charles Stross

  Thinking, Interesting, Swim

  Charles Stross (2011). “Rule 34”, p.140, Penguin

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• Programming is how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you aren't a programmer, you're like one of the unlettered people of the Middle Ages who were told what to think by the literate priesthood. We had a Renaissance when more people could read and write; we'll have another one when everyone programs.

  Tim O'Reilly

  Writing, Thinking, People

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• Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey.

  Orson Scott Card

  Successful, Secret, Honey

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