Programming Quotes - Page 21

• The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'

  Isaac Asimov

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

  "Betting On a Bass That Belts Them Out; Singing Fish Becomes Season’s Unlikely Hit" by Darragh Johnson, The Washington Post, July 30, 2000.

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• It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.

  Andy Hertzfeld

  Jobs, Real, Learning

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• Data dominates. If you've chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.

  Rob Pike

  Self, Data, Algorithms

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• Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put three man-years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product, and distributing it for free?

  Bill Gates

  Men, Years, Three

  "Rebel Code: Linus Torvalds, Open Source, and the War for the Soul of Software" by Glyn Moody, www.theguardian.com. April 10, 2001.

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• I just want things to work properly.

  James Dyson

  Want

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• Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community.

  Roger Ebert

  Numbers, Community, Survival

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• It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality. That's why writing on the Internet has become a lifesaver for me. My ability to think and write have not been affected. And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.

  Roger Ebert

  Real, Writing, Thinking

  "Remaking my voice". TED Talk, www.ted.com. March 2011.

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• Once the business data have been centralized and integrated, the value of the database is greater than the sum of the preexisting parts.

  Larry Ellison

  Data, Integrated, Has Beens

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• The more highly adapted an organism becomes, the less adaptable it is to any new change.

  Ronald Fisher

  Adapted, Adaptable, Organisms

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• I have always felt sympathy towards the biologists who accept to debate creationists. Now I also understand them better; one can fight opinions, not articles of faith.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Fighting, Opinion, Debate

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• Writing a class without its contract would be similar to producing an engineering component (electrical circuit, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) chip, bridge, engine...) without a spec. No professional engineer would even consider the idea.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Writing, Engineering, Bridges

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• Eiffel borrows quite openly from several earlier programming languages and I am sure that if we had found a good language construct in C we would have used it as well.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Language, Used, Found

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• Careful as they may be, developers of Eiffel libraries will always run into cases in which, after releasing a library class, they suddenly experience what in French is called esprit de l'escalier or wit of the staircase: a great thought which unfortunately is an afterthought, like a clever reply that would have stunned all the other dinner guests - if only you had thought of it before walking down the stairs after the party is over.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Running, Clever, Party

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• As Mr. Nagle so competently points out, almost no one uses Eiffel; in fact until recently there were only 9 users. But now a 10th person just started, so we are holding a conference, appropriately titled the TENTH Eiffel USER conference, to celebrate.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Use, Facts, Celebrate

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• Whenever a new discovery is reported to the world, they say first, It is probably not true, Then after, when the truth of the new proposition has been demonstrated beyond question, they say, Yes, it may be true, but it is not important. Finally, when sufficient time has elapsed to fully evidence its importance, they say, Yes, surely it is important, but it is no longer new.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Discovery, Important, World

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• My laptop has freed me to travel.

  Steven Pinker

  Laptops

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• Our chronic discomfort with ambiguity - which, ironically, is critical to both our creativity and the richness of our lives - leads us to lock down safe, comfortable, familiar interpretations, even if they are only partial representations of or fully disconnected from reality.

  Maria Popova

  Creativity, Reality, Locks

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• To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Interesting, Problem, Solve

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.49, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Provided the development coordinator has a communications medium at least as good as the Internet and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Communication, Development, Coercion

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.54, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• When writing gateway software of any kind, take pains to disturb the data stream as little as possible - and never throw away information unless the recipient forces you to!

  Eric S. Raymond

  Pain, Writing, Data

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.44, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• The cost of a semiconductor chip fabrication plant doubles every four years.

  Arthur Rock

  Years, Cost, Four

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• Motors make noise and that tells you about the feelings and attitudes that went into it. Something was more important than sensory pleasure - nobody would invent a chair or dish that smelled bad or that made horrible noises - why were motors invented noisy? How could they possibly be considered complete or successful inventions with this glaring defect? Unless, of course, the aggressive, hostile, assaultive sound actually served to express some impulse of the owner.

  Philip Slater

  Attitude, Successful, Feelings

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• Every invention creates new needs, but the biggest needs are not for new and more advanced versions of the last invention but for solutions to the social problems the last invention created.

  Philip Slater

  Needs, Lasts, Problem

  "The Joys of Technology: Burying Ourselves in Capabilities" by Philip Slater, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 3, 2007.

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• I prefer to be refuted than to refute, for it is a greater good for oneself to be freed from the greatest evil than to free another.

  Socrates

  Evil, Greater Good, Oneself

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• [The Internet] is a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

  Theodore Stevens

  Lines, Messages, Internet

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