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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.

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
Program
Becomes
Running
Every
Long
Rococo
Rubble
Humorous

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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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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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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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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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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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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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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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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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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
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