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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.

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
Vices
Fit
Program
Computer
Specification
Easier
Specifications
Change
Versa
Programming
Vice

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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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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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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove 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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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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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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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
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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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Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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