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

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
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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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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?”—but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
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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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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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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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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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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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