Computer language Quotes · Page 3

Computer Science is the only discipline in which we view adding a new wing to a building as being maintenance.

— Jim Horning

If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it.

— Richard E. Pattis

Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

— Larry Wall

Computer language design is just like a stroll in the park. Jurassic Park, that is.

— Larry Wall

It's OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.

— Steve McConnell

If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

— Brian Kernighan

The first step in fixing a broken program is getting it to fail repeatably [on the simplest example possible].

— Tom Duff

Computer languages of the future will be more concerned with goals and less with procedures specified by the programmer.

— Marvin Minsky

The structure of a software system provides the ecology in which code is born, matures, and dies. A well-designed habitat allows for…

— Richard E. Pattis

I, myself, have had many failures and I've learned that if you are not failing a lot, you are probably not being…

— John Backus

Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would…

— Linus Torvalds

One of the most important and fascinating of all computer languages is Lisp (standing for "List Processing"), which was invented by John…

— Douglas Hofstadter

Whereas smaller computer languages have features designed into them, C++ is unusual in having a whole swathe of functionality discovered, like a…

— Verity Stob

Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half…

— Philip Greenspun

Computer science is to biology what calculus is to physics. It's the natural mathematical technique that best maps the character of the…

— Harold Morowitz

The sole justification of teaching, of the school itself, is that the student comes out of it able to do something he…

— Jacques Barzun

I can only think that the book is read because it deals with the difficulties of schooling, which do not change. Please…

— Jacques Barzun

Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against…

— David Gelernter

There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding…

— Leslie Lamport

In the development of the understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises…

— Tony Hoare

The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are…

— Hayley Mills

When the words are fuzzy, the programmers reflexively retreat to the most precise method of articulation available: source code. Although there is…

— Amari Cooper

When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.

— Richard E. Pattis

FORTRAN was the language of choice for the same reason that three-legged races are popular.

— Ken Thompson

One can think effectively only when one is willing to endure suspense and to undergo the trouble of searching.

— John Dewey

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.

— William James

The three most important aspects of debugging and real estate are the same: Location, Location, and Location.

— Richard E. Pattis

Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes…

— Hayley Mills

That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally…

— George Boole

The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn…

— Jacques Barzun

A programming language is like a natural, human language in that it favors certain methaphors, images, and ways of thinking.

— Seymour Papert

I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my…

— Maurice Wilkes

The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities.

— Edsger Dijkstra

The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.

— Robert Coveyou

It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of Courage-to move in the opposite direction.

— Albert Einstein

[Emacs] is written in Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful.

— Neal Stephenson

An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.

— John W. Gardner

When teaching a rapidly changing technology, perspective is more important than content.

— Richard E. Pattis

More than the act of testing, the act of designing tests is one of the best bug preventers known.

— Boris Beizer

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

— Anonymous