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Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected.

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
Use
Lends
Great
Uses
Way
Programming
Never
Tool
Useful
Expected
Tools
Truly

More quotes by Eric S. Raymond

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Of course, C proved indispensible to the developers of all its alternatives. Dig down through enough implementation layers under any of the other languages surveyed here and you will find a core implemented in pure, portable C
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The combination of threads, remote-procedure-call interfaces, and heavyweight object-oriented design is especially dangerous... if you are ever invited onto a project that is supposed to feature all three, fleeing in terror might well be an appropriate reaction.
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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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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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A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets.
Eric S. Raymond
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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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If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
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The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Sometimes the latter is better.
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Grovelling is not a substitute for doing your homework.
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Today I am one of the senior technical cadre that makes the Internet work, and a core Linux and open-source developer.
Eric S. Raymond
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Programmer time is expensive conserve it in preference to machine time
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Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it
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Provided the development coordinator has a communications medium at least as good as the Internet and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one.
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The workstation-class machines built by Sun and others opened up new worlds for hackers.
Eric S. Raymond
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In the U.S., blacks are 12% of the population but commit 50% of violent crimes can anyone honestly think this is unconnected to the fact that they average 15 points of IQ lower than the general population? That stupid people are more violent is a fact independent of skin color.
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.
Eric S. Raymond
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The easiest programs to use are those which demand the least new learning from the user
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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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Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.
Eric S. Raymond
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Berkeley hackers liked to see themselves as rebels against soulless corporate empires.
Eric S. Raymond