Programming Languages Quotes - Page 4

• APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Mistake, Past, Perfection

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.130, Springer Science & Business Media

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• There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If the race is won by our tools, then systems will eventually become easier to use and more reliable. If not, they will continue to become harder to use and less reliable for all but a relatively small set of common tasks. Given how hard thinking is, if those intellectual tools are to succeed, they will have to substitute calculation for thought.

  Leslie Lamport

  Learning, Thinking, Race

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming.

  Tony Hoare

  Roots, Evil, Simplicity

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Roots, Evil

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “TEX: The Program”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

  Tony Hoare

  Witty, Humorous, Simple

  "The Emperor's Old Clothes". Communications of the ACM 24 (2), (pp. 75-83), February 1981.

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• Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

  Rick Cook

  Winning, Technology, Race

  "The Wizardry Compiled". Book by Rick Cook, 1989.

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• Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

  Alan Perlis

  Simplicity, Simple Life, Doe

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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• Never hesitate to ask a lesser person.

  Confucius

  Learning, Chinese, Programming

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• The three most important aspects of debugging and real estate are the same: Location, Location, and Location.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Real, Learning, Important

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• When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.

  Donald Knuth

  Lying, Learning, Simple

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• In the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.

  Maimonides

  Learning, Simple, Programming

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• FORTRAN, the infantile disorder, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Years, Mind, Use

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.130, Springer Science & Business Media

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• Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

  Stephen Covey

  Learning, Priorities, Time Management

  Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill (1997). “First Things First Every Day: Daily Reflections- Because Where You're Headed Is More Important Than How Fast You Get There”, Simon and Schuster

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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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• The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability.

  Randall E. Stross

  Creativity, Technology, Order

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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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• Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build.

  Fred Brooks

  Learning, Scientist, Programming

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• The sole justification of teaching, of the school itself, is that the student comes out of it able to do something he could not do before. I say do and not know, because knowledge that doesn't lead to doing something new or doing something better is not knowledge at all.

  Jacques Barzun

  Teaching, Learning, School

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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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• You have to honor failure, because failure is just the negative space around success.

  Richard R. Nelson

  Learning, Space, Honor

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• It is easier to port a shell than a shell script.

  Larry Wall

  Shells, Scripts, Easier

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• Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

  Charles Mingus

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Music

  Charles Mingus' statement in Mainliner Magazine (July 1977); later quoted in Olivia Bertagnolli "Creativity and the writing process" (p. 182), 1982.

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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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• The best way to predict the future is to create it.

  Peter Drucker

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.

  Alan Perlis

  Progress, Language, Programming

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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