Collected quotes about computers/programming

Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming. -- C.A.R. Hoare

Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. -- Alan Perlis

If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it. -- Richard Pattis

The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards. -- Arthur Koestler

The string is a stark data structure and everywhere it is passed there is duplication. It is a perfect vehicle for hiding information. -- Alan J Perlis

C has all the expressive power of two dixie cups and a string. -- Jamie Zawinski

I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. -- Alan Kay

Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp. -- Philip Greenspun

Perl is like vise grips. You can do anything with it but it is the wrong tool for every job. -- Bruce Eckel

Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. -- Donald Knuth

There are two major products that came out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. -- Jeremy S. Anderson

Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do. -- Donald Knuth

You're bound to be unhappy if you optimize everything. -- Donald Knuth

To iterate is human, to recurse divine. -- L. Peter Deutsch

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. -- Jamie Zawinski

It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to Basic; as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. -- Edsger Dijkstra

The object-oriented model makes it easy to build up programs by accretion. What this often means, in practice, is that it provides a structured way to write spaghetti code. -- Paul Graham

There are only two things wrong with C++: The initial concept and the implementation. -- Bertrand Meyer

Whenever the C++ language designers had two competing ideas as to how they should solve some problem, they said, "OK, we'll do them both". So the language is too baroque for my taste. -- Donald Knuth

c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */ -- Unknown

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Everyone needs computer programming. It will be the way we speak to the servants. -- John McCarthy

The question of whether Machines Can Think [we now know to be] about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim. -- Edsger Dijkstra

The architecture of almost every computer today is designed to optimize the performance of Fortran programs and its operating-system-level sister, C. -- Richard Gabriel

You cannot teach beginners top-down programming, because they don't know which end is up. -- C. A. R. Hoare

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated. -- Edsger Dijkstra

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