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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.

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
Casts
Dies
Never
Programmers
Void
Cast

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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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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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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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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In English every word can be verbed.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
Alan Perlis
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
Alan Perlis
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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
Alan Perlis
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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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Optimization hinders evolution.
Alan Perlis
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
Alan Perlis
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
Alan Perlis
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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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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
Alan Perlis