Some selected "Epigrams on Programming" by computer scientist Alan Perlis (1922-1990):

5. If a program manipulates a large amount of data, it does so in a small number of ways.

6. Symmetry is a complexity reducing concept (co-routines include sub-routines); seek it everywhere.

10. Get into a rut early: Do the same processes the same way. Accumulate idioms. Standardize. The only difference (!) between Shakespeare and you was the size of his idiom list – not the size of his vocabulary.

12. Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description for time.

15. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.

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

25. One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.

30. In programming, everything we do is a special case of something more general – and often we know it too quickly.

35. Everyone can be taught to sculpt; Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to. So it is with the great programmers.

48. 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.

63. When we write programs that "learn" it turns out we do and they don't.

101. 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.

108. Whenever two programmers meet to criticize their programs, both are silent.

The complete set of Perlis proverbs was published in SIGPLAN Notices Vol. 17, No. 9, September 1982, pages 7 - 13 ...

(cf Alice in Wonderland (2008-03-22), ...) - ^z - 2023-06-26