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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
Computer
Specification
Easier
Specifications
Change
Versa
Programming
Vice
Vices
Fit
Program
More quotes by Alan Perlis
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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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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 programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
Alan Perlis
C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
Alan Perlis
When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
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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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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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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
Alan Perlis
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.
Alan Perlis
There is no such thing as a free variable.
Alan Perlis
