Brian Kernighan Quotes

14 quotes in 216 categories

• Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,…
• Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
• As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we…
• Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?
• Don't document bad code - rewrite it.
• The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.
• Do what you think is interesting, do something that you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise you won't do it well anyway.
• Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs.
• If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?
• Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.
• If you had done something twice, you are likely to do it again.
• Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it…
• Some compilers allow a check during execution that subscripts do not exceed array dimensions. This is a help, but not sufficient. First, many programmers do…
• An effective way to test code is to exercise it at its natural boundaries

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