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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.

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
Missed
Probably
Procedure
Parameters
Computing
Procedures

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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
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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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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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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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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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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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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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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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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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