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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
Vice
Vices
Fit
Program
Computer
Specification
Easier
Specifications
Change
Versa
Programming

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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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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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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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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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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
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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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Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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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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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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