Quote #13

In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.

More from Alan Perlis

  1. In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word 'frustration'.
  2. In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
  3. If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
  4. 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 soa…
  5. If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
  6. It goes against the grain of modern education to teach students to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline, organi…
  7. I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
  8. It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.

All Alan Perlis quotes