Programs must be written
for people to read, and only
incidentally for machines to
execute.
Harold Abelson, Structure and
Interpretation of Computer
Programs
Tags: 1984 , maintenance,
programming
like
“ Well, Mr. Frankel, who
started this program, began
to suffer from the computer
disease that anybody who
works with computers now
knows about. It's a very
serious disease and it
interferes completely with
the work. The trouble with
computers is you *play* with
them. They are so
wonderful. You have these
switches - if it's an even
number you do this, if it's an
odd number you do that -
and pretty soon you can do
more and more elaborate
things if you are clever
enough, on one machine.
After a while the whole
system broke down. Frankel
wasn't paying any attention;
he wasn't supervising
anybody. The system was
going very, very slowly -
while he was sitting in a
room figuring out how to
make one tabulator
automatically print arc-
tangent X, and then it would
start and it would print
columns and then bitsi, bitsi,
bitsi, and calculate the arc-
tangent automatically by
integrating as it went along
and make a whole table in
one operation.
Absolutely useless. We *had*
tables of arc-tangents. But if
you've ever worked with
computers, you understand
the disease - the *delight* in
being able to see how much
you can do. But he got the
disease for the first time, the
poor fellow who invented
the thing.
Richard Feynman , Surely You're
Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures
of a Curious Character
Tags: computers , humor,
programming
like
“ Programming today is a race
between software engineers
striving to build bigger and
better idiot-proof programs,
and the Universe trying to
produce bigger and better
idiots. So far, the Universe is
winning.
Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled
(Wiz, #2)
Tags: humor , programming
like
“ That's the thing about people
who think they hate
computers. What they really
hate is lousy programmers.
Larry Niven
Tags: computers , programming,
software
like
“ Always code as if the guy
who ends up maintaining
your code will be a violent
psychopath who knows
where you live
John Woods
Tags: programming
like
“ The best programs are
written so that computing
machines can perform them
quickly and so that human
beings can understand them
clearly. A programmer is
ideally an essayist who
works with traditional
aesthetic and literary forms
as well as mathematical
concepts, to communicate
the way that an algorithm
works and to convince a
reader that the results will
be correct.
Donald Ervin Knuth , Selected
Papers on Computer Science
Tags: computer-science ,
programming
for people to read, and only
incidentally for machines to
execute.
Harold Abelson, Structure and
Interpretation of Computer
Programs
Tags: 1984 , maintenance,
programming
like
“ Well, Mr. Frankel, who
started this program, began
to suffer from the computer
disease that anybody who
works with computers now
knows about. It's a very
serious disease and it
interferes completely with
the work. The trouble with
computers is you *play* with
them. They are so
wonderful. You have these
switches - if it's an even
number you do this, if it's an
odd number you do that -
and pretty soon you can do
more and more elaborate
things if you are clever
enough, on one machine.
After a while the whole
system broke down. Frankel
wasn't paying any attention;
he wasn't supervising
anybody. The system was
going very, very slowly -
while he was sitting in a
room figuring out how to
make one tabulator
automatically print arc-
tangent X, and then it would
start and it would print
columns and then bitsi, bitsi,
bitsi, and calculate the arc-
tangent automatically by
integrating as it went along
and make a whole table in
one operation.
Absolutely useless. We *had*
tables of arc-tangents. But if
you've ever worked with
computers, you understand
the disease - the *delight* in
being able to see how much
you can do. But he got the
disease for the first time, the
poor fellow who invented
the thing.
Richard Feynman , Surely You're
Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures
of a Curious Character
Tags: computers , humor,
programming
like
“ Programming today is a race
between software engineers
striving to build bigger and
better idiot-proof programs,
and the Universe trying to
produce bigger and better
idiots. So far, the Universe is
winning.
Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled
(Wiz, #2)
Tags: humor , programming
like
“ That's the thing about people
who think they hate
computers. What they really
hate is lousy programmers.
Larry Niven
Tags: computers , programming,
software
like
“ Always code as if the guy
who ends up maintaining
your code will be a violent
psychopath who knows
where you live
John Woods
Tags: programming
like
“ The best programs are
written so that computing
machines can perform them
quickly and so that human
beings can understand them
clearly. A programmer is
ideally an essayist who
works with traditional
aesthetic and literary forms
as well as mathematical
concepts, to communicate
the way that an algorithm
works and to convince a
reader that the results will
be correct.
Donald Ervin Knuth , Selected
Papers on Computer Science
Tags: computer-science ,
programming
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