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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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
Computer
Probably
Speak
Made
Speaks
Japan
English
More quotes by Alan Perlis
In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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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 better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
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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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Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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When someone says, I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done, give him a lollipop.
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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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