“8: A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.”

—  Alan Perlis, Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

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 "8: A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant." by Alan Perlis?
Alan Perlis photo
Alan Perlis30
American computer scientist 1922–1990

Related quotes

Paul Graham photo

“A programming language is for thinking of programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of.”

Paul Graham (1964) English programmer, venture capitalist, and essayist

"Hackers and Painters" http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html, May 2003

Vernor Vinge photo

“Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.”

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep (1st edition)

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 32 (p. 397).

Alan Kay photo

“… greatest single programming language ever designed. (About the Lisp programming language.)”

Alan Kay (1940) computer scientist

2003. Daddy, Are We There Yet? A Discussion with Alan Kay http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2003/04/03/alan_kay.html <br class="br">2000s

“To the designer of programming languages, I say: unless you can support the paradigms I use when I program, or at least support my extending your language into one that does support my programming methods, I don't need your shiny new languages. […] To persuade me of the merit of your language, you must show me how to construct programs in it.”

Robert Floyd (1936–2001) American computer scientist

The Paradigms of Programming (1979)

“The establishment of formal standards for proofs about programs […] and the proposal that the semantics of a programming language may be defined independently of all processors for that language, by establishing standards of rigor for proofs about programs in the language, appears to be novel.”

Robert Floyd (1936–2001) American computer scientist

Source: Assigning Meanings to Programs http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~weimer/2007-615/reading/FloydMeaning.pdf (1967), pp. 19–20.

“"Welfare" in the United States is a patchwork of more than 80 programs that provide benefits primarily to low-income individuals. These programs are means tested - only individuals whose financial resources fall below a certain level can receive benefits.”

Harvey S. Rosen (1949) American economist

Source: Public Finance - International Edition - Sixth Edition, Chapter 8, Expenditure Programs for the Poor, p. 156

Larry Wall photo

“If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I use it occasionally…”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

Terry Pratchett photo

“My programming language was solder.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

On his early computers, from a talk "When I Were A Lad, We Used To Dream of 64K" at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, (August 2005)
General sources

Larry Wall photo

“If there's a particular problem that Perl is trying to solve, it's the basic fact that all programming languages suck. Sort of the concept of original sin, applied to programming languages.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

Public Talks, The State of the Onion 10

“Programmers should never be satisfied with languages which permit them to program everything, but to program nothing of interest easily.”

Alan Perlis (1922–1990) American computer scientist

The Synthesis of Algorithmic Systems, 1966

Related topics