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The easiest programs to use are those which demand the least new learning from the user

Eric S. Raymond

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Eric S. Raymond
Age: 66
Born: 1957
Born: December 4
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Journalist
Lawyer
Programmer
Software Developer
Writer
Boston
Massachusetts
Eric Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond
ESR
Demand
Learning
Least
Use
User
Easiest
Users
Programs
Program

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The Wesnoth devs are good but not exceptionally so, and we're weighed down by a crappy implementation language (C++). Nevertheless our productivity, in terms of goals achieved per hour of work, is quite high.
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With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow.
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Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.
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Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (e.g., given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone).
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Linux evolved in a completely different way. From nearly the beginning, it was rather casually hacked on by huge numbers of volunteers coordinating only through the Internet.
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Thompson and Ritchie were among the first to realize that hardware and compiler technology had become good enough that an entire operating system could be written in C, and by 1978 the whole environment had been successfully ported to several machines of different types.
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Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.
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Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it
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The workstation-class machines built by Sun and others opened up new worlds for hackers.
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Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.
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Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.
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Equally, the Internet interprets attempts at proprietary control as threats and mobilizes to defeat them.
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Lisp was far more powerful and flexible than any other language of its day in fact, it is still a better design than most languages of today, twenty-five years later. Lisp freed ITS's hackers to think in unusual and creative ways. It was a major factor in their successes, and remains one of hackerdom's favorite languages.
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Programmer time is expensive conserve it in preference to machine time
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You cannot motivate the best people with money. Money is just a way to keep score. The best people in any field are motivated by passion.
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It is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature
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Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.
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When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.
Eric S. Raymond
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And for any agents or proxy of the regime interested in asking me questions face to face, I've got some bullets slathered in pork fat to make you feel extra special welcome.
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Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry
Eric S. Raymond