Programming Quotes - Page 38

• Computer Science is the only discipline in which we view adding a new wing to a building as being maintenance.

  Jim Horning

  Learning, Views, Wings

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• Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Writing, Learning, Bridges

  "Why Python?". www.linuxjournal.com. Apr 30, 2000.

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• One of the principal objects of theoretical research in my department of knowledge is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in its greatest simplicity.

  J. Willard Gibbs

  Knowledge, Views, Simplicity

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• It's against my programming to impersonate a deity.

  Lawrence Kasdan

  Statistics, Deities, Impersonate

  Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas (1994). “Star Wars: The Screenplay. Return of the Jedi”

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• I think TV is still, out of every medium, the one that really offers simple easy enjoyment. You've got lots of choice, you've got the opportunity to be entertained or informed on your own or you've got the opportunity to enjoy and experience programming together. It really probably is, I still think, the most emotionally engaging and bonding medium that exists.

  Jill McDonald

  Opportunity, Simple, Thinking

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• There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Sometimes, Found, Harm

  John Maynard Keynes, Royal Economic Society (Great Britain) (1971). “The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in biography”

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• I don't ever know where I'm going. Because one of the wonderful things about writing, which is different than working in programming, you don't need to know. You could just write and discover where you're going. And it's a great deal of fun.

  Walter Mosley

  Fun, Writing, Different

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• We try to solve the problem by rushing through the design process so that enough time is left at the end of the project to uncover the errors that were made because we rushed through the design process

  Glenford Myers

  Errors, Rushing, Design Process

  Glenford J. Myers (1978). “Composite/structured design”, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

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• A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work.

  Steve McConnell

  Design, Force, Brutes

  Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.107, Pearson Education

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• A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software systems have been designed by committees and built as part of multipart projects, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great designers.

  Fred Brooks

  Design, Mind, Fans

  "No Silver Bullet – Essence and Accident in Software Engineering". Paper by Fred Brooks, 1986.

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• If you think good architecture is expensive, try bad architecture.

  Brian Foote

  Thinking, Design, Trying

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• Programs should be written and polished until they acquire publication quality.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Code Quality, Program, Should

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• Time pressure gradually corrupts an engineer's standard of quality and perfection. It has a detrimental effect on people as well as products

  Niklaus Wirth

  Code Quality, People, Perfection

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• Good visual layout shows the logical structure of a program.

  Steve McConnell

  Code Quality, Logical, Program

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• Don't document bad code - rewrite it.

  Brian Kernighan

  Code Quality, Software Engineering, Documents

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• An API that isn't comprehensible isn't usable.

  James Gosling

  Code Quality, Software Engineering, Quality

  "A Conversation with James Gosling". Interview with Bill Venners, www.artima.com. Jun 9, 2003.

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• Incorrect documentation is often worse than no documentation.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Documentation, Computer Programmers

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• When I'm 18, I can finally order that paid programming stuff on TV. Like it always says, 'Must be 18 or older to call,' so I'll be able to call! I can finally buy some blenders from the TV.

  Austin Mahone

  Order, Able, Stuff

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• An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.

  Marc Andreessen

  Successful, Technology, Different

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• By the 2030s, the nonbiological portion of our intelligence will predominate.

  Ray Kurzweil

  Portions

  Ray Kurzweil (2005). “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology”, p.264, Penguin

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• Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random

  Donald Knuth

  Numbers, Method, Should

  Donald E. Knuth (2014). “Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms”, p.25, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• C is peculiar in a lot of ways, but it, like many other successful things, has a certain unity of approach that stems from development in a small group.

  Dennis Ritchie

  Successful, Unity, Groups

  "The future according to Dennis Ritchie". Interview with Danny Kalev, www.itworld.com. December 20, 2000.

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• We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise.

  Larry Wall

  Playing Games, Compromise, Software Engineering

  Usenet article, 1991.

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• Though I'll admit readability suffers slightly.

  Larry Wall

  Suffering

  Usenet article, 1990.

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• Television viewers, they've been around a long time. They've been watching this thing now for 50 years. I mean, they know exactly what's happening when it comes to television programming. You can't put anything over on them anymore.

  Maury Povich

  Mean, Years, Long

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