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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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
Must
Men
Symbiosis
Adjust
Machine
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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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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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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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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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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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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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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