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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.

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
Doesn
Way
Affect
Think
Programming
Thinking
Program
Worth
Learning
Knowing
Language

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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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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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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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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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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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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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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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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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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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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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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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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Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
Alan Perlis