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
Alan Perlis quotes about
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.
nests ballpoint-pens parentheses
We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
book wonderland programming
The best book on programming for the layman is 'Alice in Wonderland'; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
writing learning thinking
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.
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.
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.
weed flower computer
FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
frustration frustrated definitions
In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration".
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?
void casts dies
C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
funny horse humor
Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.