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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?

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
Attention
Plans
Detail
Making
Thoughts
Grain
Self
Goes
Programming
Children
Fun
Details
Learning
Critical
Modern
Program
Devoting
Education
Discipline
Acquiring
Teach
Students
Organizing

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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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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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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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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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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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In English every word can be verbed.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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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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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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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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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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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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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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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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