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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
Early
Technology
Often
Makes
Worm
Worms
Software
Systems
Bird

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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
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You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
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It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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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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