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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

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
Pragmatists
Precede
Follows
Programming
Complexity
Simplicity
Doe

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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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.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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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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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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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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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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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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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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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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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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