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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.

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
Measure
Perspective
Attitude
Fortran
Noting
Programmer
Programmers
Vitality
Continuing

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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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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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In English every word can be verbed.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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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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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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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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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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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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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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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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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
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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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