Alan Perlis Quotes

50 quotes in 531 categories

• When someone says, "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done," give him a lollipop.
• The computing field is always in need of new cliches.
• It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
• There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
• FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
• Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
• In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration".
• If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
• I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
• Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see…
• A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
• A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
• Any noun can be verbed.
• 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 of…
• It goes against the grain of modern education to teach students to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline, organizing thoughts, devoting…
• Optimization hinders evolution.
• To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
• You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can…
• Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
• Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.

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