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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.

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
Programmer
Toast
Toasts
Nests
Programmers
Pens
Thoughts
Parentheses
Within
Lisp

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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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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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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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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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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