"PL/I as a Tool for System Programming", Datamation, 15 (5), 6 May 1969, pp. 68–76. This has been paraphrased variously by others as Corbató's Law:
Productivity and reliability depend on the length of a program’s text, independent of language level used.
Albert Endres, H. Dieter Rombach, A Handbook of Software and Systems Engineering: Empirical Observations, Laws and Theories (2003), ISBN 0321154207, p. 72
The number of lines of code a programmer can write in a fixed period of time is the same independent of the language used.
[citation needed]
Famous Fernando J. Corbató Quotes
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 79
"PL/I as a Tool for System Programming" http://web.archive.org/web/20080206153039/http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/PLI/plisprg.html, Datamation, 15 (5), 6 May 1969, pp. 68–76
"A Managerial View of the Multics System Development" (1978)
"A Managerial View of the Multics System Development" http://www.multicians.org/managerial.html, Conference on Research Directions in Software Technology, Providence, Rhode Island, October 10-12, 1977 published in Research Directions in Software Technology (1978), P. Wegner (ed.), MIT Press, ISBN 0262230968, pp. 139-158. Also reprinted in Tutorial: Software Management, Donald J. Reifer (ed.), IEEE Computer Society Press, (1979, 1981, 1986)
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 75
Fernando J. Corbató Quotes
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 75
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 80
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 78
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 81
Source: On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991), p. 77