Computer Programming Quotes

Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living. ~ Nicholas Negroponte

We teachers make the road, others will make the journey. ~ Victor Hugo

The three most important aspects of debugging and real estate are the same: Location, Location, and Location. ~ Richard E. Pattis

The unavoidable price of reliability is simplicity. ~ Tony Hoare

Creativity runs across many categories in life, from the arts-and-crafts project a mum or dad does with their kids, to the bestselling author's manuscript, to the designs of the hairdresser, to the creations of the computer programming genius. ~ Tabatha Coffey

Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP, which according to everybody is the 'most reliable Windows ever.' To me, this is like saying that asparagus is 'the most articulate vegetable ever.' ~ Dave Barry

The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim. ~ Edsger Dijkstra

The job was to put into a, a computer with only 4K of memory an entire basic full blown, floating point Basic and that's one of the greatest programming feats I've ever had a chance to work on. ~ Bill Gates

The Startup Act should give all Americans, not just immigrants, a better shot at being tomorrow's engineers and entrepreneurs. And that opportunity could begin at a young age with education in computer programming. ~ Marvin Ammori

Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible. ~ Alan Kay

In the end, it all comes down to 0 and 1 ~ Vineet Goel

If you want to truly understand something, try to change it. ~ Kurt Lewin

Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement. ~ Hal Abelson

There is a construct in computer programming called 'the infinite loop' which enables a computer to do what no other physical machine can do - to operate in perpetuity without tiring. In the same way it doesn't know exhaustion, it doesn't know when it's wrong and it can keep doing the wrong thing over and over without tiring. ~ John Maeda

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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

Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment. ~ Kent Beck

The bulk of all patents are crap. Spending time reading them is stupid. It's up to the patent owner to do so, and to enforce them. ~ Linus Torvalds

The LSP makes clear that in OOD the ISA relationship pertains to behavior. Not intrinsic private behavior, but extrinsic public behavior; behavior that clients depend upon. ~ Robert C. Martin

If the discipline of requirements specification has taught us anything, it is that well-specified requirements are as formal as code and can act as executable tests of that code! ~ Robert C. Martin

The sole justification of teaching, of the school itself, is that the student comes out of it able to do something he could not do before. I say do and not know, because knowledge that doesn't lead to doing something new or doing something better is not knowledge at all. ~ Jacques Barzun

I've always had very strong feeling that computer programming is a godlike kind of job.
Similar to the Lord creating our material world and whole the Universe, based on molecular techniques such as DNA coding ― developers create the digital world based on IT technologies coding. ~ Sahara Sanders

Computer hacking was like a chemical bond holding us all together. ~ Rachel Zhang

If she doesn't learn about data structures at home, she'll just learn about it on the streets." Sandra laughed. This was Greg's stock answer for all the age-inappropriate activities he tried to teach the kids. Most of them were odd, but benign, like computer programming. However some - like coaching them to win every argument by declaring, That sounds like something Hitler would say -were much less benign. ~ Penny Reid

A teacher's job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded. ~ Darwin D. Martin

If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it? ~ Brian Kernighan

This week Apple stores are holding free computer programming classes for children. Or as that's called in China, a job fair. ~ Conan O'Brien

If you really want to be a good archaeologist, you have to understand ancient DNA; you have to understand chemical analysis to figure out the composition of ancient pots. You have to be able to study human remains. You need to be able to do computer processing and, in some cases, computer programming. ~ Sarah Parcak

In software, we rarely have meaningful requirements. Even if we do, the only measure of success that matters is whether our solution solves the customer's shifting idea of what their problem is. ~ Jeff Atwood

We often treat children as if they're not very competent to do anything on their own. So we make them stop learning in a natural way - by exploring. Logo [the computer programming language ] allows them to find their way around the computer, as they would find their way around the house, uncontaminated by the bureaucracies of schools. ~ Seymour Papert

If you think you're a really good programmer ... read Knuth's Art of Computer Programming ... You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing. ~ Bill Gates

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. ~ Frank Herbert

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

Old Enochian running on neural wetware is not the fastest procedural language ever invented, and it's semantics make AppleScript look like a thing of elegance and beauty ~ Charles Stross

In the happy land of elegant code and pretty rainbows, there lives a spoil-sport monster called inefficiency. ~ Marijn Haverbeke

Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute. ~ Donald Ervin Knuth

I graduated from college with a 3.92 GPA with a degree in computer programming and a BFA in fine arts and animation. My first job was painting a mural in the Grimaldi's in Queens. ~ JWoww

Talk is cheap. Show me the code. ~ Linus Torvalds

In a budget, how important is art versus music versus athletics versus computer programming? At the end of the day, some of those trade-offs will be made politically. ~ Bill Gates

If I were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women participate in all human rights, especially those of the mind. ~ Emilie Du Chatelet

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

Technology and computers are very much at the core of our economy going forward. To be prepared for the demands of the 21st century-and to take advantage of its opportunities-it is essential that more of our students today learn basic computer programming skills, no matter what field of work they want to pursue. ~ Todd Park

I was really looking at computers as a way to understand the mind. But at M.I.T., my mind was blown by having a whole computer to yourself as long as you liked.I felt a surge of intellectual power through access to this computer, and I started thinking about what this could mean for kids and the way they learn. That's when we developed the computer programming language for kids, Logo. ~ Seymour Papert

Pascal (Object Pascal - Free Pascal) for real programmers, Delphi for Nerds... C/C++ for people who always wishes to do things like reinventing the wheel. ~ Rejie Roque

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

The structure of a software system provides the ecology in which code is born, matures, and dies. A well-designed habitat allows for the successful evolution of all the components needed in a software system. ~ Richard E. Pattis

Computer programming is really a lot like writing a recipe. If you've read a recipe, you know what the structure of a recipe is, it's got some things up at the top that are your ingredients, and below that, the directions for how to deal with those ingredients. ~ Larry Wall

For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to the "art of computer programming" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title. ~ Donald Knuth

The real technology -behind all our other technologies- is language. It actually creates the world our consciousness lives in. ~ Andrei Codrescu

A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer. ~ Bill Gates

Your career is stagnating by the minute. You are steadily letting your sedentary computer-programming desk-bound lifestyle turn your body into mush. All of these problems are much bigger and harder to just fix than a bug. They're all complex, hard to measure, and comprised of many different small solutions - some of which will fail to work! ~ Chad Fowler

A long descriptive name is better than a short enigmatic name. A long descriptive name is better than a long descriptive comment. ~ Robert C. Martin

That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. ~ Larry Niven

The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself. ~ Amari Cooper

The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it. ~ Jacques Barzun

An activity originally intended to be performed by low-status, clerical – and more often than not, female – computer programming was gradually and deliberately transformed into a high-status, scientific, and masculine discipline. ~ Nathan L. Ensmenger

If you are too lazy to cleanup your database after testing, your filesystem after testing or your memory based system consider moving to a different profession. This isn't a job for you. ~ Roy Osherove

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

I have always been making art from an early age but for nearly forty years did computer programming to earn a living. I bought a house and put my wife and three children through college. Now that diversion is over so I can finally paint full time. ~ Mike Thompson

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. ~ Brian Kernighan

XML is not a language in the sense of a programming language any more than sketches on a napkin are a language. ~ Charles Simonyi

Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one. ~ Brian Kernighan

It has to become second nature, for a programmer, to notice when a concept is begging to be abstracted into a new word. ~ Marijn Haverbeke

To iterate is human, to recurse divine. ~ L Peter Deutsch

Internet! Is that thing still around? ~ Homer

You don't have to believe everything you think."
- Chris Hardwick, "The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) ~ Chris Hardwick

When I deal with smart IT programmers, I have a strong impression that their job has much in common with the phenomenon of how the Lord arranged the Universe and created genetics (cells, DNA, molecules, etc.). Both genetics and computer programming create their magic by performing highly intelligent coding work. ~ Sahara Sanders

BASIC is to computer programming as QWERTY is to typing. ~ Seymour Papert

Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships. ~ Linus Torvalds

Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build. ~ Fred Brooks

The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution hasn't started yet. ~ Alan Kay

Never hesitate to ask a lesser person. ~ Confucius

Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer. ~ Edsger W. Dijkstra

If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it. ~ Richard E. Pattis

I think that computer programming shows in my writing. Often when I write about computer programmers I'll write about the way that they see the world and they structure the world. ~ Walter Mosley

Any fool can use a computer. Many do. ~ Ted Nelson

Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn ~ Stephen Hawking

In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming. ~ Iain Banks

Give a man a program, frustrate him for a day.
Teach a man to program, frustrate him for a lifetime. ~ Waseem Latif

Without requirements and design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file. ~ Louis Srygley

If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution. ~ Robert Sewell

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

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering. ~ William James

The silicon microchips themselves might be cheap (relative to times past, anyway), but CPU cycles are not cheap. Every CPU cycle consumes clock time. Clock time is latency. A wasteful application makes its users wait longer than they need to, and if there's anything users hate, it's waiting. For web systems, latency in the application has a dual effect. The added processing directly increases the burden on the application servers themselves. Suppose that an application takes just 250 milliseconds of extra processing per transaction. If the system processes a million transactions a day, that extra 250 milliseconds per transaction makes for an extra 69.4 hours of compute time every day. Assuming an 80% load factor on each server, you'll need four additional servers to handle this load. ~ Michael T. Nygard

Sometimes you cannot program around stupid. ~ David Ferrell

I've had a lot of fun writing percussion music. It feels quite similar to writing computer music. But I found myself in the role of choreographer in a way, worrying about physical movement and such. ~ Paul Lansky

The first draft of everything, I write longhand. One of the nice things about that is that it makes you keep going. If you write a bad sentence on the computer, then it's very tempting to go back and fidget with it and spend another 20 minutes trying to make it into a good sentence. ~ Jonathan Dee

Nothing could be more misleading than the idea that computer technology introduced the age of information. The printing press began that age, and we have not been free of it since. ~ Neil Postman

Even today no computer can understand language as well as a three-year-old or see as well as a mouse. ~ Vilayanur S. Ramachandran

The most sought-after candidates in the world today by companies like mine are people who make computer software - there's a shortage of talent. ~ Xavier Niel

An interactive debugger is an outstanding example of what is not needed - it encourages trial-and-error hacking rather than systematic design, and also hides marginal people barely qualified for precision programming. ~ Harlan Mills

If it turns out that all this time we have merely been studying the programming of a cosmic planetarium, then that would merely mean that we have been studying a smaller portion of reality than we thought. So what? Such things have happened many times in the history of science, as our horizons have expanded beyond the Earth to include the solar system, our Galaxy, other galaxies, clusters of galaxies and so on, and, of course, parallel universes. ~ David Deutsch

My sister Brenda said I was more interested in the idea of writing a book than actually writing it, because if I really wanted to write, I just would, every day, by myself, for myself, whether it was a book or not. She said a writer felt compelled to write whether they had an idea or not, whether they had a computer or not, whether they had a pen and paper or not. [ ... ] I wanted to write, I just didn't know if I could, and if I ever made a start I was afraid I'd discover that I couldn't. (from How to Fall in Love) ~ Cecelia Ahern

when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create. ~ Why The Lucky Stiff

Debugging: what an odd word. As if "bugging" were the job of putting in bugs, and debugging the task of removing them. But no. The job of putting in bugs is called programming. A programmer writes some code and inevitably makes the mistakes that result in the malfunctions called bugs. Then, for some period of time, normally longer than the time it takes to design and write the code in the first place, the programmer tries to remove the mistakes. ~ Ellen Ullman

I've always been a bit of a mix between art and technology. I used to paint a lot, but I'm not very good with my hands. It has always been a fusion between my computer gaming interests and being exposed to the rich data of society that we live in. ~ Aaron Koblin

I'm thankful God has given us the technology where we can see each other through Skype on the computer. It's not the same thing, but at least we can see each other. Imagine the time before when that wasn't available and people had to go defend our country. It's really hard. I go two weeks without seeing my family and I go crazy. ~ Albert Pujols

And we were in our thirties. Well into the Age of Boredom, when nothing is new. Now, I'm not being self-pitying; it's simply true. Newness, or whatever you want to call it, becomes a very scarce commodity after thirty. I think that's unfair. If I were in charge of the human life span, I'd make sure to budget newness much more selectively, to ration it out. As it is now, it's almost used up in the first three years of life. By then you've seen for the first time, tasted for the first time, held something for the first time. Learned to walk, talk, go to the bathroom. What have you got to look forward to that can compare with that? Sure, there's school. Making friends. Falling in love. Learning to drive. Sex. Learning to trade. That has to carry you for the next twenty-five years. But after that? What's the new excitement? Mastering your home computer? Figuring out how to work CompuServe? "Now, if it were up to me, I'd parcel out. So that, say, at thirty-five we just learned how to go on the potty. Imagine the feeling of accomplishment! They'd have office parties. "Did you hear? The vice president in charge of overseas development just went a whole week without his diaper. We're buying him a gift." It'd be beautiful. ~ Phoef Sutton

Computer hacking really results in financial losses and hassles. The objectives of terrorist groups are more serious. That is not to say that cyber groups can't access a telephone switch in Manhattan on a day like 9/11, shut it down, and therefore cause more casualties. ~ Kevin Mitnick