On COBOL: 'But Grace, then anyone will be able to write programs!'

You manage things, you lead people.

The most dangerous phrase in the language is, 'We've always done it this way.'

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

(To the extent that anyone but a Prolog programmer can understand X totally. (And to the extent that a Prolog programmer can understand 'cut'. :-))

I'm reminded of the day my daughter came in, looked over my shoulder at some Perl 4 code, and said, 'What is that, swearing?

In my first year I was taught about the slide rule. They said, 'The slide rule is important. Without it you can do nothing. The slide rule is the modern weapon…