Brian Kernighan

Get the weirdnesses into the data where you can manipulate them easily, and the regularity into the code because regular code is…

— Brian Kernighan

Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.

— Brian Kernighan

An effective way to test code is to exercise it at its natural boundaries

— Brian Kernighan

As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade…

— Brian Kernighan

Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?

— Brian Kernighan

If you had done something twice, you are likely to do it again.

— Brian Kernighan

C is a razor-sharp tool, with which one can create an elegant and efficient program or a bloody mess.

— Brian Kernighan

Believe the terrain, not the map

— Brian Kernighan

Mechanical rules are never a substitute for clarity of thought.

— Brian Kernighan

Don't document bad code - rewrite it.

— Brian Kernighan

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as…

— Brian Kernighan

“Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as…

— Brian Kernighan

Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to…

— Brian Kernighan

... it is a fundamental principle of testing that you must know in advance the answer each test case is supposed to…

— Brian Kernighan

Do what you think is interesting, do something that you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise you won't do it well…

— Brian Kernighan

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.

— Brian Kernighan

If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

— Brian Kernighan

90% of the functionality delivered now is better than 100% delivered never.

— Brian Kernighan

Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs.

— Brian Kernighan

The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

— Brian Kernighan

Some compilers allow a check during execution that subscripts do not exceed array dimensions. This is a help, but not sufficient. First,…

— Brian Kernighan