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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.

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
Definition
Turning
Definitions
Useful
Obvious
Computer
Computing
Word
Frustrated
Living
Frustration

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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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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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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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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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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 man's constant is another man's variable.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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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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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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