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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.

Alan Perlis

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Alan Perlis
Age: 67 †
Born: 1922
Born: April 1
Died: 1990
Died: February 7
Computer Scientist
Mathematician
University Teacher
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
Alan Jay Perlis
Alan J. Perlis
Often
Makes
Worm
Worms
Software
Systems
Bird
Early
Technology

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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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When someone says, I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done, give him a lollipop.
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I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
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The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland, but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?”—but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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In English every word can be verbed.
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