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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.

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
Learn
Inevitable
Helping
Matters
Live
Program
Matter
Computer
Think
Training
Substantially
Thinking
Learning
Poorly
People
Technology
Programming
Help
Treatment

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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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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 good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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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 are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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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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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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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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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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