Programmers Quotes - Page 10

• Systems programmers are the high priests of a low cult.

  Bob Barton

  Design, Lows, Priests

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• The complexity of C++ (even more complexity has been added in the new C++), and the resulting impact on productivity, is no longer justified. All the hoops that the C++ programmer had to jump through in order to use a C-compatible language make no sense anymore - they're just a waste of time and effort. Now, Go makes much more sense for the class of problems that C++ was originally intended to solve.

  Bruce Eckel

  Impact, Order, Class

  "Calling Go from Python via JSON-RPC". www.artima.com. August 27, 2011.

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• By the mid-1990s the number of people with some experience of using computers was many orders of magnitude greater than in the 1960s. In the Kasparov defeat they recognized that here was a great triumph for programmers, but not one that may compete with the human intelligence that helps us to lead our lives.

  Igor Aleksander

  Order, Numbers, People

  "How to Build a Mind". Book by Igor Aleksander, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2000.

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• Programmers can be lazy.

  Larry Wall

  Lazy

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• C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.

  Alan Perlis

  Void, Casts, Dies

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• America pays defense contractors to build aircraft carriers. Google pays brilliant programmers to do whatever the hell they want.

  Robin Sloan

  America, Google, Defense

  Robin Sloan (2012). “Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore”, p.55, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Computer languages of the future will be more concerned with goals and less with procedures specified by the programmer.

  Marvin Minsky

  Goal, Language, Computer

  Turing Award Lectures Year Awarded 1969, dl.acm.org. 2007.

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• Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C.

  Linus Torvalds

  Choices, Would Be, Use

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• The intellectual property situation is bad and getting worse. To be a programmer, it requires that you understand as much law as you do technology.

  Eric Allman

  Technology, Law, Intellectual

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• Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations... They now need more, and more expensive clerks even though they call them 'operators' or 'programmers.'

  Peter Drucker

  Expectations, Clerks, Needs

  Peter Drucker (2012). “Managing in Turbulent Times”, p.25, Routledge

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• If you're a musician or actor, you know that if you're successful, some level of fame goes along with that. You're prepared. But how often does that happen to a programmer?

  Shawn Fanning

  Successful, Musician, Doe

  "The Music Swapper: Shawn Fanning". From Interview with Jeff Howe, www.wired.com. August 01, 2005.

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• Common programmer thought pattern: there are only three numbers: 0, 1, and n.

  Joel Spolsky

  Numbers, Three, Patterns

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• We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.

  Alan Perlis

  Nests, Ballpoint Pens, Parentheses

  "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs". Textbook by Gerald Jay Sussman and Hal Abelson, 2nd edition, 1996.

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• A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.

  Alan Perlis

  Cost, Lisp, Knows

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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• Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn't take it away from you. I'm happy to share what I can, because I'm in it for the love of programming.

  John Carmack

  Zero, Teaching, Games

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• If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs.

  Richard Stallman

  Creating, Use, Program

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.30, Lulu.com

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• Programmers are in the enviable position of not only getting to do what they want to, but because the end result is so important they get paid to do it. There are other professions like that, but not that many.

  Linus Torvalds

  Important, Want, Economy

  "FM Interviews: Interview with Linus Torvalds: What motivates software developers". Interview with Rishabh Aiyer Ghosh, firstmonday.org. October 3, 2005.

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• All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists.

  Fred Brooks

  Believe, Frustration, Goal

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• Voodoo Programming: Things programmers do that they know shouldn't work but they try anyway, and which sometimes actually work, such as recompiling everything.

  Karl Lehenbauer

  Trying, Computer, Sometimes

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• The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Exploitation, Activity, Abstraction

  "The Humble Programmer". Edsger Dijkstra's ACM Turing Award lecture, "Communications of the ACM", Volume 15, No. 10, www.cs.utexas.edu. October 1972.

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• Finding a technical cofounder would have been difficult for me. I was an English major and didn't know any computer programmers.

  Jessica Livingston

  Computer, Difficult, English Major

  "The Advice For Any Woman Who Wants To Found A Startup" by Jessica Livingston, www.businessinsider.com. January 31, 2011.

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• The belief that complex systems require armies of designers and programmers is wrong. A system that is not understood in its entirety, or at least to a significant degree of detail by a single individual, should probably not be built.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Army, Degrees, Details

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• An organisation that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only.

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Organization, Able, Treats

  "The C++ Programming Language". Book by Bjarne Stroustrup, October 1985.

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• Reality is the temporary resultant of continuous struggles between rival gangs of programmers.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Struggle, Reality, Rivals

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• To many managers, getting rid of the arrogant, undisciplined, over-paid, technology-obsessed, improperly-dressed etc. programmers would appear to be a significant added benefit

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Technology, Arrogant, Benefits

  Bjarne Stroustrup (2000). “The C++ Programming Language”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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