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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.
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
Says
Language
Someone
Give
Need
Lollipop
Done
Developers
Giving
Geek
Needs
Programming
More quotes by Alan Perlis
We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
Alan Perlis
If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
Alan Perlis
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
Alan Perlis
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
Alan Perlis
A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
Alan Perlis
Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
Alan Perlis
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.
Alan Perlis
In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
Alan Perlis
To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
Alan Perlis
Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
Alan Perlis
In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
Alan Perlis
One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
Alan Perlis
Optimization hinders evolution.
Alan Perlis
It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
Alan Perlis
Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
Alan Perlis
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.
Alan Perlis
Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
Alan Perlis
Any noun can be verbed.
Alan Perlis
There is no such thing as a free variable.
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.
Alan Perlis
