Niklaus Wirth Quotes (13 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Niklaus Wirth: 13 quotes1 like

Famous Niklaus Wirth Quotes

“… we do not consider it as good engineering practice to consume a resource lavishly just because it happens to be cheap.”

Niklaus Wirth

Niklaus Wirth (2013) " Project Oberon https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ProjectOberon/PO.System.pdf". Section 2.3, p. 19.

“Experience shows that the success of a programming course critically depends on the choice of these examples.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

“In the practical world of computing, it is rather uncommon that a program, once it performs correctly and satisfactorily, remains unchanged forever.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

“Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.”

Niklaus Wirth

[A Plea for Lean Software, http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/co/&toc=comp/mags/co/1995/02/r2toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/2.348001, 2007-01-13, Computer, 1995, February, 28, 2, pp. 64-68]
Variation: Software is decelerating faster than hardware is accelerating.
aka "Wirth's law"

“But active programming consists of the design of new programs, rather than contemplation of old programs.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

“Programming is usually taught by examples.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

Niklaus Wirth Quotes

“As a matter of fact, the adaptability of a program to changes in its objectives (often called maintainability) and to changes in its environment (nowadays called portability) can be measured primarily in terms of the degree to which it is neatly structured.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

“Go To statement considered harmful.”

Niklaus Wirth

Often attributed to Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, but it was the title to a letter in CACM 11, 3 (March, 1968). However The original title of " A Case against the GO TO Statement http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD02xx/EWD215.html" (EWD215, PDF here http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd02xx/EWD215.PDF, ACM has its own copy http://www.acm.org/classics/oct95 online) was changed by the editor Niklaus Wirth, to speed up publication. Dijkstra explains it himself in EWD1308 http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD13xx/EWD1308.html (see near the end of the article).

“Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer.”

Niklaus Wirth

Niklaus Wirth (1999) " A Digital Contrarian Retires http://www.modulaware.com/mdlt/mdlt79.htm". Beat Gerber eds., June 1999.

“In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.”

Niklaus Wirth

Niklaus Wirth (1997) " A Few Words with Niklaus Wirth http://www.eptacom.net/pubblicazioni/pub_eng/wirth.html". Dr Carlo Pescio eds. June 1997.

“During the process of stepwise refinement, a notation which is natural to the problem in hand should be used as long as possible.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)

“Clearly, programming courses should teach methods of design and construction, and the selected examples should be such that a gradual development can be nicely demonstrated.”

Niklaus Wirth

Program Development by Stepwise Refinement (1971)