Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.
For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading edge, could be so useless. And then it occurred to me that a computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match.
C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off.
When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.
Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.
The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it's too late.
If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Programming languages, like pizzas, come in only too sizes; too big and too small.
Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes it takes.
Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are known. Programs can't acquire bugs by sitting around with other buggy programs.
Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.
The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.... The computer resembles the magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn't work. Human beings are not accustomed to being perfect, and few areas of human activity demand it. Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.
Know what you're talking about.
The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.
Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.
When in doubt, use brute force.
Know what you are talking about.
Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.
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