Programming Quotes - Page 23

• As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.

  David Parnas

  Real, Learning, Insomnia

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• Testing by itself does not improve software quality. Test results are an indicator of quality, but in and of themselves, they don't improve it. Trying to improve software quality by increasing the amount of testing is like trying to lose weight by weighing yourself more often. What you eat before you step onto the scale determines how much you will weigh, and the software development techniques you use determine how many errors testing will find. If you want to lose weight, don't buy a new scale; change your diet. If you want to improve your software, don't test more; develop better.

  Steve McConnell

  Errors, Code Quality, Simplicity

  Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.501, Pearson Education

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• It is impossible for any Christian who spends the bulk of his evenings, month after month, week upon week, day in and day out watching the major TV networks or contemporary videos to have a Christian mind. This is always true of all Christians in every situation! A Biblical mental program cannot coexist with worldly programming.

  R. Kent Hughes

  Christian, Biblical, Mind

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• The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language.

  Alan Kay

  Firsts, Language, Programming Languages

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• You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. Its logic-based creativity.

  John Romero

  Creativity, Artist, Thinking

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• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Learning, Roots, Evil

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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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• We need imagination in programming, not sterility; creativity, not imitation; experimentation, not conformity; excellence, not mediocrity. Television is filled with creative, imaginative people. You must strive to set them free.

  Newton N. Minow

  Creativity, People, Imagination

  Television and the Public Interest, delivered 9 May 1961, National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, DC

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• Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don't know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.

  Harry Bridges

  Jobs, Work, Believe

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• Our biological body itself is a form of hardware that needs re-programming through tantra like a new spiritual software which can release or unblock its potential.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Spiritual, Needs, Body

  Slavoj Žižek, Slavoj Zizek (2011). “Living in the End Times”, p.8, Verso

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• Sharing the code just seems like The Right Thing to Do. It costs us rather little, but it benefits a lot of people in sometimes very significant ways. There are many university research projects, proof of concept publisher demos, and new platform test beds that have leveraged the code. Free software that people value adds wealth to the world.

  John Carmack

  People, Bed, Add

  "John Carmack: Making the Magic Happen" by Brad Cook, www.bradcook.net. February 2009.

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• If you're willing to restrict the flexibility of your approach, you can almost always do something better

  John Carmack

  Approach, Something Better, Willing

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• You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.

  Ken Keyes Jr.

  Responsibility, Childhood, Fixing

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• Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Computer, Software, Gas

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• Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children.

  Marvin Minsky

  Children, Robots, Earth

  "Will Robots Inherit the Earth?". Scientific American, web.media.mit.edu. October 1994.

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• If you want to go somewhere, goto is the best way to get there.

  Ken Thompson

  Want, Way, Ifs

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• To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.

  Stephen Hawking

  Firsts, Recursion, Software Development

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• [Donald Trump] can do it [build the wall] by executive order by just re-programming money within the within the Immigration Service.

  Rudy Giuliani

  Wall, Order, Immigration

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Learning, Thinking, Progress

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• In the good old days physicists repeated each other's experiments, just to be sure. Today they stick to FORTRAN, so that they can share each other's programs, bugs included.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Today, Bugs, Sticks

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

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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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• Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Hard Work, Appreciate, Simplicity

  "On the nature of Computing Science" by Edsger Dijkstra, www.cs.utexas.edu. August 10, 1984.

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• Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance.

  Richard Stallman

  Learning, Awards, Giving

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• A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is obscure.

  Hugh Kingsmill

  Learning, Libertarian, Obscure

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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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