Programming Quotes - Page 15

• What I was proud of was that I used very few parts to build a computer that could actually speak words on a screen and type words on a keyboard and run a programming language that could play games. And I did all this myself.

  Steve Wozniak

  Running, Games, Play

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• The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Technology, Thinking, Swim

  Interview with Jack Schofield, www.theguardian.com. August 19, 2002.

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• Programming is usually taught by examples.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Example, Taught

  "Program Development by Stepwise Refinement". Communications of the ACM 14 (4): pp. 221-227, April 1971.

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• Nevertheless, I consider OOP as an aspect of programming in the large; that is, as an aspect that logically follows programming in the small and requires sound knowledge of procedural programming.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Sound, Aspect, Nevertheless

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• When someone says, "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done," give him a lollipop.

  Alan Perlis

  Funny Inspirational, Giving, Needs

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• A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.

  Bill Gates

  Technology, Average, Computer

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• The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry.

  Henry Petroski

  Technology, Achievement, Gains

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• The kind of programming that C provides will probably remain similar absolutely or slowly decline in usage, but relatively, JavaScript or its variants, or XML, will continue to become more central.

  Dennis Ritchie

  Aggravation, Javascript, Kind

  "The future according to Dennis Ritchie". Interview with Danny Kalev, www.itworld.com. December 20, 2000.

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• The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself.

  Amari Cooper

  Learning, Giving, Code

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• As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

  Maurice Wilkes

  Mistake, Technology, Coders

  "The Design and Use of the EDSAC". Lecture delivered at the Digital Computer Museum, September 23, 1979.

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• Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.

  Ray Ozzie

  Frustration, Technology, Challenges

  "Burden of the years weighs on Windows" by Steve Lohr and John Markoff, www.nytimes.com. March 26, 2006.

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• Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.

  Alan Perlis

  Progress, Language, Manage

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

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• If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution.

  Robert Sewell

  Java, Garbage, Execution

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• Gates is the ultimate programming machine. He believes everything can be defined, examined, reduced to essentials, and rearranged into a logical sequence that will achieve a particular goal.

  Stewart Alsop II

  Believe, Science, Technology

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?

  Alan Perlis

  Fun, Learning, Self

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

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• FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.

  Alan Perlis

  Weed, Flower, Computer

  Alan J. Perlis (1975). “Introduction to computer science”

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• I made up the term "object-oriented," and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

  Alan Kay

  Mind, Term, Computer Language

  "The Computer Revolution hasn't happend yet". Alan Kay's keynote at OOPSLA conference, www.youtube.com. 1997.

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• Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.

  Tom DeMarco

  Children, Analysis, Damage

  Tom DeMarco (1978). “Structured analysis and system specification”, Yourdon Press

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• People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Wall, Reality

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• From a programmer's point of view, the user is a peripheral that types when you issue a read request.

  Pharrell Williams

  Learning, Views, Issues

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• Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul.

  John Carmack

  Soul, Levels, Computer

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• In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.

  Alan Perlis

  Language, Programming Languages

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

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• There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If the race is won by our tools, then systems will eventually become easier to use and more reliable. If not, they will continue to become harder to use and less reliable for all but a relatively small set of common tasks. Given how hard thinking is, if those intellectual tools are to succeed, they will have to substitute calculation for thought.

  Leslie Lamport

  Learning, Thinking, Race

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• I find languages that support just one programming paradigm constraining

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Support, Language, Paradigm

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• But active programming consists of the design of new programs, rather than contemplation of old programs.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Design, Contemplation, Program

  "Program Development by Stepwise Refinement". Communications of the ACM, Vol. 14, No. 4, sunnyday.mit.edu. April 1971.

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