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Program construction consists of a sequence of refinement steps.

Niklaus Wirth

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Niklaus Wirth
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: February 15
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Programmer
University Teacher
Winterthur ZH
Niklaus Emil Wirth
Niklaus E. Wirth
Sequence
Construction
Consists
Program
Steps
Refinement

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Go To statement considered harmful.
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Our ultimate goal is extensible programming. By this, we mean the construction of hierarchies of modules, each module adding new functionality to the system.
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A primary cause of complexity is that software vendors uncritically adopt almost any feature that users want.
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Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.
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Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.
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Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. (Or, sometimes known by] Grove [the head of Intel] giveth and Gates [the head of Microsoft] taketh away.)
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Good engineering is characterized by gradual, stepwise refinement of products that yields increased performance under given constraints and with given resources.
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My being a teacher had a decisive influence on making language and systems as simple as possible so that in my teaching, I could concentrate on the essential issues of programming rather than on details of language and notation.
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It is evidently necessary to generate and test candidates for solutions in some systematic manner.
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Time pressure gradually corrupts an engineer's standard of quality and perfection. It has a detrimental effect on people as well as products
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Software development is technical activity conducted by human beings.
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C++ is an insult to the human brain
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Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer.
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But active programming consists of the design of new programs, rather than contemplation of old programs.
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The idea that one might derive satisfaction from his or her successful work, because that work is ingenious, beautiful, or just pleasing, has become ridiculed.
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The belief that complex systems require armies of designers and programmers is wrong. A system that is not understood in its entirety, or at least to a significant degree of detail by a single individual, should probably not be built.
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Prolific programmers contribute to certain disaster.
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