Erik Naggum Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Once we were Programmers. Maybe our last best hope is a movie.

  Erik Naggum

  Lasts, Hoping For The Best, Programmers

  "PART TWO: winning industrial-use of lisp". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. June 19, 2002.

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• The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the aspects you are willing to accept.

  Erik Naggum

  Important, Accepting, Aspect

  "S-exp vs XML, HTML, LaTeX (was: Why lisp is growing)". Usenet article, groups.google.com. December 28, 2002.

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• In Norway, we have a community of people who prefer to use a version of Norwegian that looks very much like lutefisk: Dug up remains from the garbage heap of history and dressed up to look like a tradition.

  Erik Naggum

  People, Community, Looks

  Re: Irish road-signs are now metric (Usenet article), groups.google.com. February 21, 2005.

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• Counting lines is probably a good idea if you want to print it out and are short on paper, but I fail to see the purpose otherwise.

  Erik Naggum

  Ideas, Purpose, Paper

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• I'm bothered by the fact that stupid people don't spontaneously combust, which they should.

  Erik Naggum

  Stupid, People, Facts

  Re: A draft business plan for free software LISP vendors (Usenet article), groups.google.com. March 7, 1999.

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• Have you considered the option of getting the joke? If not, try it now and redeem your soul.

  Erik Naggum

  Soul, Trying, Jokes

  Re: Lisp Machines considered Inferior (Usenet article), groups.google.com. November 18, 2002.

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• Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.

  Erik Naggum

  Art, Kings, Writing

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• What I actually admire in Perl is its ability to provide a very successful abstraction of the horrible mess that is collectively called Unix.

  Erik Naggum

  Successful, Unix, Admire

  "Using Lisp to Call another program in linux?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. November 11, 2002.

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• All experience has taught us that solving a complex problem uncovers hidden assumptions and ever more knowledge, trade-offs that we didn't anticipate but which can make the difference between meeting a deadline and going into research mode for a year, etc.

  Erik Naggum

  Years, Taught Us, Differences

  "Is CLOS reall OO?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. May 5, 1998.

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• Very clever implementation techniques are required to implement this insanity correctly and usefully, not to mention that code written with this feature used and abused east and west is exceptionally exciting to debug.

  Erik Naggum

  Clever, Used And Abused, Insanity

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• Those who write software only for pay should go hurt some other field.

  Erik Naggum

  Hurt, Writing, Pay

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• Structure is nothing if it is all you got. Skeletons spook people if they try to walk around on their own. I really wonder why XML does not.

  Erik Naggum

  Skeletons, People, Trying

  "The horror that is XML". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. March 7, 2002.

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• A word says more than a thousand images. Exercises for the visually inclined: illustrate "appreciation", "humor", "software", "education", "inalienable rights", "elegance", "fact".

  Erik Naggum

  Appreciation, Exercise, Rights

  Re: Emacs inferior to XEmacs? (Usenet article), groups.google.com. November 8, 1996.

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• C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go by guesswork and ignorance.

  Erik Naggum

  Liars, Ignorance, People

  "Is CLOS reall OO?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. May 5, 1998.

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• Suppose we blasted all politicians into space. Would the SETI project find even one of them?

  Erik Naggum

  Space, Politician, Projects

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• If Perl is the solution, you're solving the wrong problem.

  Erik Naggum

  Problem, Solutions, Ifs

  Re: Q: on hashes and counting (Usenet article), groups.google.com. October 19, 2000.

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• Sufficiently advanced political correctness is indistinguishable from sarcasm.

  Erik Naggum

  Sarcasm, Political, Political Correctness

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• You become a serious programmer by going through a stage where you are fully aware of the degree to which you know the specification, meaning both the explicit and the tacit specification of your language and of your problem. "Hey, it works most of the time" is the very antithesis of a serious programmer, and certain languages can only support code like that.

  Erik Naggum

  Support, Degrees, Hey

  "Implementational Portability". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. August 23, 1999.

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• The ultimate laziness is not using Perl. That saves you so much work you wouldn't believe it if you had never tried it.

  Erik Naggum

  Believe, Laziness, Ultimate

  Re: Lisp as glue language? (Usenet article), groups.google.com. November 21, 2000.

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• What people "want" is a function of what they learn is available. If you wish to sell something, you'd better understand that you can't give people what they want in the market today, because what they want today is what they can already get. You have to discover what they really want, and find some way to give that physical shape.

  Erik Naggum

  People, Giving, Wish

  "Creation of lisp machine/lispOS". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. May 1, 1997.

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• I have come to believe that large print, thick and heavy paper, and wide margins and oversize leading is indicative of the expected intelligence of the reader. … Compare children's books and books on Web Duhsign or other X-in-21-days books. If the reading level of a specification is below college level, chances are the people behind it are morons and the result morose.

  Erik Naggum

  Children, Believe, Book

  Re: "Well, I want to switch over to replace EMACS LISP with Guile." (Usenet article), groups.google.com. September 30, 2002.

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• Sometimes, the only way to learn something really well is to revert to the state of mind of a novice and reawaken to the raw observations that you have accumulated instead of relying on the conclusions you have reached from the exogenous premises absorbed through teaching and bookish learning.

  Erik Naggum

  Teaching, Mind, Novices

  Re: Guide to Lisp, v1.20 (Usenet article), groups.google.com. August 28, 2002.

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• The Internet will not become a money machine until the banking industry figures out how to transfer money for free so you can charge USD 0.005 (half a cent) for some simple service like, say, reading a newspaper article you have searched for. With today's payment system, the cost of the transfer of the funds completely dwarf the cost of the service paid for. ... This situation, however, is what acutely prevents the Internet from taking off as a network for paid services.

  Erik Naggum

  Reading, Simple, Dwarves

  "Is it ok if I quote?". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. September 23, 2002.

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• When all actions are used for feedback, the consequence of making mistakes will be a corrective and appropriate response, because everything everybody does matters. ... The more selective you are in the feedback you accept, the more insane your reasoning will become as you will necessarily reject corrective feedback that would have led to better reasoning.

  Erik Naggum

  Mistake, Insane, Doe

  "Lisp's future". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. January 31, 2004.

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• The currency in the developer community is enthusiasm.

  Erik Naggum

  Community, Enthusiasm, Currency

  "What I want from my Common Lisp vendor and the Common Lisp community". Usenet discussion groups, groups.google.com. August 31, 2001.

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