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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.

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
Reborn
Programmers
Programming
Error
Errors
Else
Everything

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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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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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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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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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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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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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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In English every word can be verbed.
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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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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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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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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.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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