Perlis Quotes

In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble. — Alan Perlis

LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing. — Alan Perlis

To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program. — Alan Perlis

FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer. — Alan Perlis

A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming. — Alan Perlis

The emergence of Casual Fridays has created a fine line of fashion ion dos and don'ts. — Michael Perlis

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

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

In English every word can be verbed. — Alan Perlis

One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one can forget arithmetic. Perlis 1982 — Alan J. Perlis

Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer. — Alan Perlis

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. — Alan Perlis

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

Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. — Alan Perlis

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

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

We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem. — Alan Perlis

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

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

If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some. — Alan Perlis

Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way. — Alan Perlis

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

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. — Alan Perlis

Motto for a research laboratory: what we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow. — Alan Perlis

'Forbes' has championed entrepreneurism since its founding. — Michael Perlis

One man's constant is another man's variable. — Alan Perlis

In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm. — Alan Perlis

Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it. — Alan Perlis

Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones. — Alan Perlis

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? — Alan Perlis

In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter. — Alan Perlis

There is no such thing as a free variable. — Alan Perlis

Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis. — Alan Perlis

One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means. — Alan Perlis

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

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

Not everyone can come and post on Forbes; it's a very distinguishing factor for us. We vet the folks who come on board. — Michael Perlis

The computing field is always in need of new cliches. — Alan Perlis

In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't. — Alan Perlis

In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn. — Alan Perlis

Our content carries the Forbes name, and our whole mantra is to put authoritative journalism at the center of the social media experience. — Michael Perlis

In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word 'frustration'. — Alan Perlis

A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing. — Alan Perlis

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one. — Alan Perlis

You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. — Alan Perlis

If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan. — Alan Perlis

Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. — Alan Perlis

Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon. — Alan Perlis

Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them. — Alan Perlis

A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God. — Alan Perlis

Any noun can be verbed. — Alan Perlis

When someone says, "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done," give him a lollipop. — Alan Perlis

Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble. — Alan Perlis

When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students. — Alan Perlis

C programmers never die. They are just cast into void. — Alan Perlis

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. — Alan Perlis

I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it. — Alan Perlis