“It won't be covered in the book. The source code has to be useful for something, after all…”

—  Larry Wall

[10160@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It won't be covered in the book. The source code has to be useful for something, after all…" by Larry Wall?
Larry Wall photo
Larry Wall 294
American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954

Related quotes

Denise Levertov photo
Marilyn Monroe photo

“Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Variant: Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum photo

“If you just want to use the system, instead of hacking on its internals, you don't need source code.”

Andrew S. Tanenbaum (1944) Dutch computer scientist

In a Usenet message, 5 Feb 1992.
The "Linux is Obsolete" Debate

Ken Thompson photo

“You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself. (Especially code from companies that employ people like me.) No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.”

Ken Thompson (1943) American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system

"Reflections on Trusting Trust" http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/360000/358210/reflections.pdf, 1983 Turing Award Lecture, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763.

Carson Cistulli photo

“There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Metropolitan Police Spokesperson
Source: Wall and Piece (2005)

Linus Torvalds photo
Philip Pullman photo
Mindy Kaling photo
Richard Stallman photo

Related topics