Alan Perlis
Alan Perlis
Alan Jay Perliswas an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth1 April 1922
CountryUnited States of America
swag swagger
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.
variables
There is no such thing as a free variable.
fun philosophy bittersweet
Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?”—but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
procedures parameters computing
If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
funny-inspirational giving done
When someone says, "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done," give him a lollipop.
speak-english japan computer
If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
soap software discarded
Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
funny horse humor
Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
writing program
Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
mean goal technique
Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
men symbiosis machines
In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
mean machines fit
Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
men variables constant
One man's constant is another man's variable.
thinking today firsts
Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.