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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
Long
Rococo
Rubble
Humorous
Program
Becomes
Running
Every

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Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
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Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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 year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Optimization hinders evolution.
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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 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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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
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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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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
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