Programming languages Quotes · Page 2

Question authority; but, raise your hand first.

— Alan Dershowitz

Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

— Vladimir Lenin

If the only tool you have is a hammer, it's hard to eat spaghetti.

— David Allen

In English every word can be verbed.

— Alan Perlis

In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.

— Alan Perlis

A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do

— Dennis Ritchie

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

— Alan Perlis

The C language combines all the power of assembly language with all the ease-of-use of assembly language.

— Mark Pearce

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

— R. Buckminster Fuller

I have a pretty major problem with a language where one of the most common variables has the name $_

— Brian H. Hook

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

— Larry Wall

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

— Jim Horning

Most programming languages are decidedly inferior to mathematical notation and are little used as tools of thought in ways that would be…

— Kenneth E. Iverson

With the computer and programming languages, mathematics has newly-acquired tools, and its notation should be reviewed in the light of them. The…

— Kenneth E. Iverson

A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as…

— Hal Abelson

I have a cat, so I know that when she digs her very sharp claws into my chest or stomach it's really…

— Erik Naggum

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

— Tom Gilb

If our designs are failing due to the constant rain of changing requirements, it is our designs that are at fault. We…

— Robert Cecil Martin

A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is…

— Bill Gates

A programming language that is sort of like Pascal except more like assembly except that it isn't very much like either one,…

— Raymond Simard

When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly…

— Donald Knuth

We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty,…

— Edsger Dijkstra

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an…

— Andy Hertzfeld

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

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

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

Job Control Language is the worst programming language ever designed anywhere by anybody for any purpose.

— Fred Brooks

Code should run as fast as necessary, but no faster; something important is always traded away to increase speed.

— Richard E. Pattis

You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain…

— Alan Perlis

You cannot teach beginners top-down programming, because they don't know which end is up.

— Tony Hoare

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

XML is not a language in the sense of a programming language any more than sketches on a napkin are a language.

— Charles Simonyi

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

— Richard E. Pattis

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.

— Albert Einstein

SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing.

— Philip Greenspun

Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term.

— Alan Kay

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

— John Dewey

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

— George Boole