Every program has two purposes: The one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
It goes against the grain of modern education to teach students to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline,… — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain… — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with… — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot… — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
