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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.

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
Machines
Fit
Program
Usually
Ones
Adapting
Means
Hardware
Mean
Programs
Like
Behave

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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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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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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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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 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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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?
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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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 man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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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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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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