Computer programming Quotes · Page 2

It is easier to port a shell than a shell script.

— Larry Wall

BASIC is to computer programming as QWERTY is to typing.

— Seymour Papert

You don't have to believe everything you think.

— Erykah Badu

Experience comes from bad judgment.

— Mark Twain

Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

— Donald Knuth

I was interested in computer programming as a kid. In fact, during my college days, I used to be a hacker.

— Vatsal Sheth

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be…

— Leonardo da Vinci

I made up the term "object-oriented," and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

— Alan Kay

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

— Edsger Dijkstra

At forty, I was too old to work as a programmer myself anymore; writing code is a young person’s job.

— Michael Crichton

The bulk of all patents are crap. Spending time reading them is stupid. It's up to the patent owner to do so,…

— Linus Torvalds

“A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do.”

— Arthur Bloch

One purpose of CRC cards [a design tool] is to fail early, to fail often, and to fail inexpensively. It is a…

— Cay S. Horstmann

The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have…

— Bill Gates

I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take…

— Douglas Adams

Object-oriented programming as it emerged in Simula 67 allows software structure to be based on real-world structures, and gives programmers a powerful…

— David Gelernter

“In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, "to be, or not to be, that is the question." In the 21st century, "to code, or not…

— Newton Lee

Art history and Elizabethan poetry don't employ workers; the arduous and tedious application of business sciences such as computer programming and accounting…

— Edward Conard

At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, one of…

— Tom Gilb

I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.

— Maya Lin

“Thinking back to old-time computer programming in the days before programming languages supported internationalization, we used to have to “internationalize” our code.…

— Ben Horowitz

There is a construct in computer programming called 'the infinite loop' which enables a computer to do what no other physical machine…

— John Maeda

When building a complex system, having crackerjack programmers (who can make any design work, even a bad one) can be a liability.…

— Richard E. Pattis

If you really want to be a good archaeologist, you have to understand ancient DNA; you have to understand chemical analysis to…

— Sarah Parcak

We often treat children as if they're not very competent to do anything on their own. So we make them stop learning…

— Seymour Papert

The discipline of programming is most like sorcery. Both use precise language to instruct inanimate objects to do our bidding. Small mistakes…

— Richard E. Pattis

“deliberate practice” to describe this style of serious study, defining it formally as an “activity designed, typically by a teacher, for the…

— Cal Newport

The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly.…

— Anonymous

Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.

— Tom Van Vleck

Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.

— Tom DeMarco

Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.

— Brian Kernighan

A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.

— Alan Perlis

The cheapest, fastest, and most reliable components are those that aren't there.

— Gordon Bell

When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem.

— R. Buckminster Fuller

This week Apple stores are holding free computer programming classes for children. Or as that's called in China, a job fair.

— Conan O'Brien

The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely…

— Edsger Dijkstra

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.

— Larry Wall

Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.

— Kent Beck

I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer.

— Douglas Adams

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as 'lines produced' but as 'lines spent.'

— Edsger Dijkstra