Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.
Edsger Dijkstra
Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description for time.
Alan J. Perlis
The eleventh commandment was "Thou Shalt Compute" or "Thou Shalt Not Compute" - I forget which.
Alan J. Perlis
Compatibility means deliberately repeating other people's mistakes.
Anonymous
Wherever there is modularity there is the potential for misunderstanding: Hiding information implies a need to check communication.
Alan J. Perlis
How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity —in short: what mathematicians call "elegance"— are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
Edsger W. Dijkstra
The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.
John Carmack on software patents
If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
John Wooden, basketball coach
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
Rich Kulawiec
Now I'm a pretty lazy person and am prepared to work quite hard in order to avoid work.
Martin Fowler