Programming Quotes - Page 16

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

  John Carmack

  Soul, Levels, Computer

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• The cost of adding a feature isn't just the time it takes to code it. The cost also includes the addition of an obstacle to future expansion. ... The trick is to pick the features that don't fight each other.

  John Carmack

  Fighting, Simplicity, Expansion

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• Nine people can't make a baby in a month.

  Fred Brooks

  Baby, People, Nine

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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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• Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.

  Philip Greenspun

  Half, Bugs, Common

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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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• 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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• Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

  Rick Cook

  Winning, Technology, Race

  "The Wizardry Compiled". Book by Rick Cook, 1989.

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• Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

  Brian Kernighan

  Inspirational, Funny, Smart

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• Programming languages, like pizzas, come in only too sizes; too big and too small.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Learning, Size, Language

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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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• 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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• 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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• Many people tend to look at programming styles and languages like religions: if you belong to one, you cannot belong to others. But this analogy is another fallacy.

  Niklaus Wirth

  People, Style, Looks

  "The Awakening of Global Consciousness: A Guide to Self-Realization and Spirituality". Book by Jawara D. King, 2010.

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Roots, Evil

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “TEX: The Program”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

  Albert Einstein

  Courage, Moving, Simple

  "Small is Beautiful". The Radical Humanist, Vol. 37, No. 5, (p. 22), August 1973.

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• 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.

  Andy Rooney

  Witty, Work, Technology

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• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Inspirational, Motivational, Courage

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• If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Thinking, Mechanic, Quantum

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• Comparing to another activity is useful if it helps you formulate questions, it's dangerous when you use it to justify answers.

  Martin Fowler

  Use, Answers, Helping

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• Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence, simplicity does.

  Lawrence Bossidy

  Simplicity, Doe, Complexity

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• A program that produces incorrect results twice as fast is infinitely slower.

  John Ousterhout

  Program, Produce, Results

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• Are you quite sure that all those bells and whistles, all those wonderful facilities of your so called powerful programming languages, belong to the solution set rather than the problem set?

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Powerful, Code Quality, Bells

  Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1976). “A Discipline of Programming”, Prentice Hall

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• The primary duty of an exception handler is to get the error out of the lap of the programmer and into the surprised face of the user. Provided you keep this cardinal rule in mind, you can't go far wrong.

  Verity Stob

  Errors, Mind, Lap

  "Catch as Catch Can". www.theregister.co.uk. January 11, 2006.

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