Quote

Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.

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
Fields
Banality
Technology
Computing
Need
Cliche
Needs
Vitality
Always
Nerves
Desperate
Humorous
Soothes
Field
Cliches

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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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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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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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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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In English every word can be verbed.
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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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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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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 computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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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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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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