Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out. --Chris Pine College is a waystation - the last convenience store on the road to life-long responsibility. --Dennis Miller Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code. --Edsger W. Dijkstra Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper is from the wrong kind of tree. --Professor W. It's got to be the going not the getting there that's good. --Hary Chapin 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 The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intention of its user. --C.A.R. Hoare [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 A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing. --Alan Perlis Twenty hours at the keyboard can save you two hours of planning. --Isaac Traxler Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it. --Donald Knuth 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 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 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 Without requirements and design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file. --Louis Srygley 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 When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and put the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is just that kind of language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass. --Larry Wall Programming is the art of thinking really hard about how to avoid having to think really hard. --unknown I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits. --Kent Beck A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points --Alan Kay The issue of finding the best possible answer or achieving maximum efficiency usually arises in industry only after serious performance or legal troubles. --Steven S. Skiena Happiness should be a function without any parameters. --Pranshu Midha Some of the best programming is done on paper, really. Putting it into the computer is just a minor detail. --Max Kanat-Alexander 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 That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. --Larry Niven
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