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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.

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
Hardy
Occasionally
Weed
Programming
Computer
Flower
Grows
Fortran
Every
Blooms

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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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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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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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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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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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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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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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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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In English every word 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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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
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