There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

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

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Every program has two purposes: The one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word ""frustration"".

quote by Alan Perlis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!