Quotes from work
Epigrams on Programming

Alan Perlis

"Epigrams on Programming" is an article by Alan Perlis published in 1982, for ACM's SIGPLAN journal. The epigrams are a series of short, programming-language-neutral, humorous statements about computers and programming, which are widely quoted.

“19: A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“57: It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“75: The computing field is always in need of new cliches: Banality sooths our nerves.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“11: If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“101 Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“116: You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“117: It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and, learning to be self-critical?”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“80: Prolonged contact with the computer turns mathematicians into clerks and vice versa.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

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

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“16 Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“55: LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“79: A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“59: In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“1: One man's constant is another man's variable.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“39: A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“95: Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“41: Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

“42: You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.”

Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming

Epigrams on Programming, 1982

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