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It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.

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
Trust
Better
Structures
Functions
Operate
Data
Structure
Function

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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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A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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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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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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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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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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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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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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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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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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