If the steps become to big, they become walls... --Herb Sutter Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively --Dalai Lama XIV How do you expect to succeed if you do not know the rules? --Anonymous Twenty hours at the keyboard can save you two hours of planning. --Isaac Traxler But while you can always write 'spaghetti code' in a procedural language, object-oriented languages used poorly can add meatballs to your spaghetti. --Andrew Hunt 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 The personal computer isn't "personal" because it's small and portable and yours to own. It's "personal" because you pour yourself into it - your thoughts, your programming. --Audrey Watters That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. --Larry Niven Einstein repeatedly argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer. --Frederick P. Brooks Jr. First solve the problem. Then, write the code. --Waseem Latif A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students. --John Ciardi Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible. --Alan Kay Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it. --Donald Knuth Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. --Martin Fowler There ain't no rules around here. We are trying to accomplish something. --Thomas Edison Think twice, code once. --Waseem Latif With software there are only two possibilites: either the users control the programme or the programme controls the users. If the programme controls the users, and the developer controls the programme, then the programme is an instrument of unjust power. --Richard Stallman How do you expect to succeed if you do not know the rules? --Anonymous Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live --John Woods Good programmers write code that humans can understand. --Martin Fowler Managers of programming projects aren’t always aware that certain programming issues are matters of religion. If you’re a manager and you try to require compliance with certain programming practices, you’re inviting your programmers’ ire. Here’s a list of religious issues: ■ Programming language ■ Indentation style ■ Placing of braces ■ Choice of IDE ■ Commenting style ■ Efficiency vs. readability tradeoffs ■ Choice of methodology—for example, Scrum vs. Extreme Programming vs. evolutionary delivery ■ Programming utilities ■ Naming conventions ■ Use of gotos ■ Use of global variables ■ Measurements, especially productivity measures such as lines of code per day --Steve McConnell The big optimizations come from refining the high-level design, not the individual routines. --Steve McConnell [On identifying talented programmers] It’s just enthusiasm. You ask them what’s the most interesting program they worked on. And then you get them to describe it and its algorithms and what’s going on. If they can’t withstand my questioning on their program, then they’re not good. I’m asking them to describe something they’ve done that they’ve spent blood on. I’ve never met anybody who really did spend blood on something who wasn’t eager to describe what they’ve done and how they did it and why. I let them pick the subject. I don’t pick the subject, so I’m the amateur and they’re the professional in this subject. If they can’t stand an amateur asking them questions about their profession, then they don’t belong. --Ken Thompson Some of the best programming is done on paper, really. Putting it into the computer is just a minor detail. --Max Kanat-Alexander Along every step of our journey through life, our mind is being programmed. If we are not programming it ourselves, someone else is doing it to us. --Joseph Rain The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong without comment. --Theodore H. White What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time? --James Alan Gardner There is nothing good or bad about knowledge itself; morality lies in the application of knowledge. --Jon Erickson I'm a programmer. I like programming. And the best way I've found to have a positive impact on code is to write it. --Robert C. Martin You are not reading this book because a teacher assigned it to you, you are reading it because you have a desire to learn, and wanting to learn is the biggest advantage you can have. --Cory Althoff So if an algorithm is an idealized recipe, a program is the detailed set of instructions for a cooking robot preparing a month of meals for an army while under enemy attack --Kernighan Brian Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out. --Chris Pine
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