One man's constant is another man's variable. Alan Perlis More Quotes by Alan Perlis More Quotes From Alan Perlis In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm. Alan Perlis worms technology bird In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter. Alan Perlis computing mean Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones. Alan Perlis machines fit mean In English every word can be verbed. Alan Perlis english-language programming-languages language Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't. Alan Perlis program purpose two When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students. Alan Perlis graduates compassion students Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon. Alan Perlis cancer sugar causes I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it. Alan Perlis learning technology thinking Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. Alan Perlis top-down simplicity doe A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing. Alan Perlis lisp programmers cost You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. Alan Perlis vitality perspective attitude Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow. Alan Perlis research today thinking Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way. Alan Perlis horse humor funny In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration". Alan Perlis frustrated frustration definitions If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan. Alan Perlis speak-english japan computer In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn. Alan Perlis reborn programming errors In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages. Alan Perlis programming-languages programming language Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble? Alan Perlis discarded soap-bubbles software Any noun can be verbed. Alan Perlis nouns programming learning Optimization hinders evolution. Alan Perlis programming learning evolution
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