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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.

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
Word
Language
Every
Would
Languages
Programming
English

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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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.
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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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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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.
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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 language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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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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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?”—but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
Alan Perlis
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
Alan Perlis
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
Alan Perlis
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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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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.
Alan Perlis