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.
-- E. W. Dijkstra
Ce n'est que par les relations qu'on entretient entre nos différentes
connaissances qu'elles nous restent accessibles.
-- Shnuup, sur l'hypertexte (SELFHTML -> Introduction -> Definitions sur l'hypertexte)
What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition
wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it.
It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid
asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got
so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way
you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you
don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will.
-- Paul Graham
Its a shame that the students of our generation grew up with windows and
mice because that tainted our mindset not to think in terms of powerful
tools. Some of us are just so tainted that we will never recover.
-- Jeffrey Mark Siskind qobi@research.nj.nec.com in comp.lang.lisp
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary
words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a
drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or
avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word
tell.
-- William Strunk, Jr. (The Elements of Style)
I think that a lot of programmers are ignoring an important point when
people talk about reducing code repetition on large projects.
Part of the idea is that large projects are intrinsically wrong. That
you should be looking at making a number of smaller projects that are
composable, even if you never end up reusing one of those smaller
projects elsewhere.
-- Dan Nugent
We tend to seek easy, single-factor explanations of success. For most
important things, though, success actually requires avoiding many
separate causes of failure.
-- Jared Diamond
Seize any opportunity, or anything that looks like opportunity. They are
rare, much rarer than you think...
-- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan".
All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of
indirection.
-- Butler Lampson
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.
-- E. W. Dijkstra
-- Gbi de fer
Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit
that. But it is nicer to ordinary people.
-- Matz, LL2
Ce n'est que par les relations qu'on entretient entre nos différentes
connaissances qu'elles nous restent accessibles.
-- Shnuup, sur l'hypertexte (SELFHTML -> Introduction -> Definitions sur l'hypertexte)
Only bad designers blame their failings on the users.
-- unknown
What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition
wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it.
It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid
asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got
so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way
you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you
don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will.
-- Paul Graham
J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de
l'indifférence.
-- Anatole France
Its a shame that the students of our generation grew up with windows and
mice because that tainted our mindset not to think in terms of powerful
tools. Some of us are just so tainted that we will never recover.
-- Jeffrey Mark Siskind qobi@research.nj.nec.com in comp.lang.lisp
Fools! Don't they know that tears are a woman's most effective weapon?
-- Catwoman (The Batman TV Series, episode 83)
I’d rather write programs to write programs than write programs.
-- Richard Sites
Sound methodology can empower and liberate the creative mind; it cannot inflame
or inspire the drudge.
-- Frederick P. Brooks, No Sliver Bullet.
It’s hard to grasp abstractions if you don’t understand what they’re
abstracting away from.
-- Nathan Weizenbaum
Code is poetry.
-- wordpress.org
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary
words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a
drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or
avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word
tell.
-- William Strunk, Jr. (The Elements of Style)
-- [Ideas for flamewars]
The programmer must seek both perfection of part and adequacy of
collection.
-- Alan J. Perlis
New eyes have X-ray vision. [someone that hasn't written it is more
likely to spot the bug. "someone" can be you after a break]
-- William S. Annis
The choice of the university is mostly important for the piece of paper
you get at the end. The education you get depends on you.
-- Andreas Zwinkau
I think that a lot of programmers are ignoring an important point when
people talk about reducing code repetition on large projects.
Part of the idea is that large projects are intrinsically wrong. That
you should be looking at making a number of smaller projects that are
composable, even if you never end up reusing one of those smaller
projects elsewhere.
-- Dan Nugent
No art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to
excel in it.
-- Alberti
The problem is that small examples fail to convince, and large examples
are too big to follow.
-- Steve Yegge.
We tend to seek easy, single-factor explanations of success. For most
important things, though, success actually requires avoiding many
separate causes of failure.
-- Jared Diamond
Resume writing is just like dating, or applying for a bank loan, in that
nobody wants you if you're desperate.
-- Steve Yegge.
A no uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a yes merely
uttered to please or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OSes is like saying
that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
-- Alanna
If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming
high enough.
-- Alan Kay
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the
results.
-- Winston Churchill
Seize any opportunity, or anything that looks like opportunity. They are
rare, much rarer than you think...
-- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan".
Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to
predict the future is to invent it.
-- Alan Kay
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a
while, you could miss it.
-- Ferris Bueller
Ce n’est que par les beaux sentiments qu’on parvient à la fortune !
-- Charles Baudelaire, Conseils aux jeunes littérateurs.