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We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.

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
Lasts
Last
Fermat
Next
Theorem
Today
Theorems
Verge
Proved

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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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When someone says, I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done, give him a lollipop.
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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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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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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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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
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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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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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A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
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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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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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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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