What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time? --James Alan Gardner 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 is the art of thinking really hard about how to avoid having to think really hard. --unknown Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. --Martin Fowler [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 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 I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits. --Kent Beck Perl – The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption. --Keith Bostic Without requirements and design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file. --Louis Srygley Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. --Nartin Fowler Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper is from the wrong kind of tree. --Professor W. 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 The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. --perldoc perl The big optimizations come from refining the high-level design, not the individual routines. --Steve McConnell 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 J. Perlis 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 First solve the problem. Then, write the code. --Waseem Latif Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live --John Woods College is a waystation - the last convenience store on the road to life-long responsibility. --Dennis Miller Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible. --Alan Kay Twenty hours at the keyboard can save you two hours of planning. --Isaac Traxler Our consciousness is programmed. We see things a certain way from a young age - we're programmed to keep doing them that way. Then you have to spend adulthood learning how to overcome it, to read out the programs. Try to create. I want to tell people to create. Just start by creating your day. Then create your life. --Prince Object-oriented programming offers a sustainable way to write spaghetti code. It lets you accrete programs as a series of patches. --Paul Graham 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 Delivering good software today is often better than perfect software tomorrow, so finish things and ship. --David Thomas The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intention of its user. --C.A.R. Hoare Premature optimization is the root of all evil. --Donald Knuth There ain't no rules around here. We are trying to accomplish something. --Thomas Edison 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
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