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One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.

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
Formal
Means
Mean
Informal
Proceed

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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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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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Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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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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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.
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Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
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Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
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If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
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We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
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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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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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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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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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