A Double Handful of Programming Quotes
I’m busy tidying up a few loose ends with work at the moment, before family arrive for Xmas – and I just haven’t have any time for in-depth articles. So instead of my own words, here’s a few of my favourites from other people:
“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”
- Brian Kernighan
“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”
- Bjarne Stroustrup
“Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.”
- Martin Fowler
“There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.”
- C.A.R. Hoare
“Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.”
- Alan Kay
“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”
- Bill Gates
“If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don’t need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on and the dedication to go through with it.”
- John Carmack
“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”
- Abelson / Sussman
“Question: How does a large software project get to be one year late? Answer: One day at a time!”
- Fred Brooks
“Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you’ll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don’t think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn’t solve some fairly immediate need, it’s almost certainly over-designed. And don’t expect people to jump in and help you. That’s not how these things work. You need to get something half-way useful first, and then others will say “hey, that almost works for me”, and they’ll get involved in the project.”
- Linus Torvalds
good post
[...] A Double Handful of Programming Quotes is a reasonably short list of quotes, only two of which I’d heard before. The last one (well, the last one when I read it) was by Linus Torvalds, and while I’ve read some quotes attributed to him in the past that I totally don’t agree with, this one I do. There’s a development project that I know that was exactly this – massively over-designed and, to use a quote from earlier in that list, there were no obvious deficiencies. That’s because it was so massively over-designed in an “all or nothing” approach rather than taking the approach of a little at a time. I wish I could give you more detail, I really do, but I think I might get shot by the perpetrator… [...]
“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”
I’m hardly agree these.
Then learn to speak english and you might!
good one ruckus!
*EVERY* page I hit that begs for a thumbs-up gets an automatic thumbs-down from me, no matter how good or bad it might be. Here’s yours…
@ dj ruckus Uhm sorry but uh… Well maybe you should learn english cuz leonardo meant that he does understand u moron.
To translate it to u in C++:
// test.cpp
#include
#includey
using namespace std;
int main(void){
string hardly = “hardly”;
string easiely =”easiely”;
If(easyiely.equals(hardly) == true){
cout << “dj ruckus is a moron!!!” <c++ -o ./test ./test.cpp
user@linux-llrv:~>./test
dj ruckus is a moron!!!
user@linux-llrv:~>
And to be honest shut the F@#k up!!!
To the quotes small group but honest to the bone.
lol, I agree!
A Christmas Software Story
Your boss speaks to the client and gives you requirements XYZ
You listen to his feedback and produce a product with features PQR
The salesman sells your product extolling the virtues of features LMN
No-one is happy…
you guys are a bunch o fucken melvins! go write that in HTML!
This is old, very old “wisdom.”
Take “Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”
The current wisdom is that tests must be written and executed; and actual code only incidentally written.
Real programmers are artists , real artists are proud of their work and do not use foul language to throw mud at others paintings. Pure art results in pure systems that never fail or have to be restarted. Thus whether it is a line of code the machine can read it or the human can read , the result is that the system works as required, that is the test of a REAL Programmer, ARTIST.
I liked this page but wouldn’t normally have given it a thumb up or down. I did however give it the UP just to cancel out The Anonymous Stumbler being an ass. Come on, it was a very friendly and unobtrusive way of asking for a thumbs up.
Hi, nice collection of quotations.. I particularly liked the one about Bjourne stroustoup (sorry for the spelling) … Id like to like to this page from my technology blog:
http://shashankrlz.co.nr
[...] A Double Handful of Programming Quotes – Some funny quotes from notable programmers including Bill Gates and Alan Kay. Posted Friday, December 26, 2008 | 0 Comments Tags Life, Links, PC Tips, Programming, .Net, ASP.Net, Science [...]
A little experience by Loyal Code Soldiers
[...] While I plan on all of this being a web app, I’m prototyping the look and feel with WPF. In theory I could deploy a silverlight-based app, but I don’t know how many people have silverlight available in their browser. In a few years, maybe, but not now. I would love to have parallel implementations (i.e. Silverlight version available for those that have it), but I’m trying to think small. Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you’ll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don’t think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn’t solve some fairly immediate need, it’s almost certainly over-designed. And don’t expect people to jump in and help you. That’s not how these things work. You need to get something half-way useful first, and then others will say “hey, that almost works for me”, and they’ll get involved in the project. – Linus Torvalds [...]
[...] 26, 2008 in Links More Citations No Comments Leave a Commenttrackback addressThere was an error with your comment, please try [...]
Andreas – that has to be the geekiest insult I have ever seen!
Hey Andreas,
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
puts “Vs lbh pna arvgure pbqr abe vafhyg cebcreyl, creuncf lbh fubhyq ersenva sebz obgu.”.tr! “A-Za-z”, “N-ZA-Mn-za-m”
On topic though; I’m guessing Stroustroup is trying to defend his language with that quote, but I’d have to counter-argue that if a language is almost universally hated but for a few zealous fans, it’s probably a worse language than one that is almost universally loved but for a few zealous haters. I’ve met very few programmers that both like C++ and know other languages beside it. I’ve met very few programmers that both dislike [ObjC, lisp, python] and have tried them properly.
On the Linus quote; he’s an ass but that was very good advice. I’ve had that as gut feeling for a while but I’ll try to apply it more in the future.
Awesome quotes. To the Ninja Turtle, “I’m hardly agree these” does indeed make no sense whatsoever and to justify this butchering of the English language (Andreas) is appalling.
cool site…love the quotes and gave you a stumble thumbs up…keep working hard
Here’s my addition, “Real men program in binary.”
[...] A Double Handful of Programming Quotes [...]
[...] Quotes clipped by: slosd Clip Source: http://www.hackification.com “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the [...]
[...] http://www.hackification.com/2008/12/23/a-double-handful-of-programming-quotes/ [...]
[...] A Double Handful of Programming Quotes Nice Programming Quotes! (tags: design code education software project fun inspiration development funny projectmanagement humor programming cool article todo interesting list coding computing quotes cs haha wisdom quotations quote) [...]
Frases célebres sobre programación que no deberíamos olvidar…
En hackification han recopilado unas frases que nunca deberíamos olvidar (por nuestro bien y el de los demás
)…
Great quotes. I personally agree that code should be written for people mot computers.
Not enough people comment their code well enough.
The code is for the programmer not for the computer. The computer does not have to wade the code.
I always wrote commented code so I knew what was going on later.
So I’m not sure if I agree with you.
[...] been reading some programming quotes but skimming the comments to that page on barrapunto (Spanish clone of /.) I found a particularly [...]
[...] de los comentarios de Meneame. Fuente original This entry was written by Pirata21 and posted on January 3, 2009 at 9:43 pm and filed under [...]
[...] Hackification | Vía: JavaHispano Algunas anotaciones relacionadas: Frase célebre de Bill Gates, [Descarga del [...]
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The best post i hav ever seen on the Internet. Yu Rock!! Double Stumble for you.
[...] http://www.google.com/Top/Recreation/Humor/Computer/Programming/ http://www.hackification.com/2008/12/23/a-double-handful-of-programming-quotes/ [...]
Worldhate’s corollary:
the quality of the post is directly proportional to the stupidity of the comments that follow it.
Thus, even without reading, I’d know this is one damn fine post.
amazing stuff thanx
that wasn’t said by bill gates – FYI
Eish! The quotes were compiled(!) for our amusement, not for negative scripts(!).
Great info. never seen a subject of quotes like this in the netherlands
Nothing But the Truth
“Hope is not a design pattern”
“i is not a function!”
So much truth in these programming quotes. Anyone who’s has every programmed before in their lifetime will get a kick from reading them.
I agree… people ever COMPLAIN about a language, or they just don’t use it!