Quotes on Computer Programming

Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more 'user-friendly'... Their best approach so far has been to take all the old brochures and stamp the words 'user-friendly' on the cover.

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

A programming language is like a natural, human language in that it favors certain methaphors, images, and ways of thinking.

When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

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

Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?" Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.

I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.

The cost of adding a feature isn't just the time it takes to code it. The cost also includes the addition of an obstacle to future expansion. ... The trick is to pick the features that don't fight each other.

Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul.

I made up the term "object-oriented," and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.

You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time.

There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users'.