Alan Perlis Quotes
- A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with… Adequately
- There is no such thing as a free variable. Free
- Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis. Analysis
- Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. Dealing
- Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?â€â€”but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of… Ask
- Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer. Computer
- If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up. Explaining
- C programmers never die. They are just cast into void. C Programmers
- One man's constant is another man's variable. Constant
- Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones. Adapting
- In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter. Computing
- In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't. Adjust
- In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages. English
- In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn. Error
- LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing. Cost
- Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress. Absorb
- We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses. Lisp
- In English every word can be verbed. English
- In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble. Becomes
- Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. Avoid