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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.

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
Getting
Mean
Time
Computing
Shorter
Keeps
Failure

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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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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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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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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 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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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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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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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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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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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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In English every word can be verbed.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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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