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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
Never
Tool
Useful
Expected
Tools
Truly
Use
Lends
Great
Uses
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Programming
More quotes by Eric S. Raymond
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.
Eric S. Raymond
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.
Eric S. Raymond
Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other way around.
Eric S. Raymond
When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.
Eric S. Raymond
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.
Eric S. Raymond
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
A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets.
Eric S. Raymond
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
If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.
Eric S. Raymond
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.
Eric S. Raymond
The workstation-class machines built by Sun and others opened up new worlds for hackers.
Eric S. Raymond
Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter.
Eric S. Raymond
Programmer time is expensive conserve it in preference to machine time
Eric S. Raymond
Equally, the Internet interprets attempts at proprietary control as threats and mobilizes to defeat them.
Eric S. Raymond
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.
Eric S. Raymond
Why the hell hasn't wxPython become the standard GUI for Python yet?
Eric S. Raymond
For the first time, individual hackers could afford to have home machines comparable in power and storage capacity to the minicomputers of ten years earlier - Unix engines capable of supporting a full development environment and talking to the Internet.
Eric S. Raymond
Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it
Eric S. Raymond
If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
Eric S. Raymond
Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.
Eric S. Raymond
