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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.

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
Head
Nods
Listener
Listeners
Explaining
Wake
Program

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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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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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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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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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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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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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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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Optimization hinders evolution.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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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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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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