Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Charles Babbage
Perhaps if we wrote programs from childhood on, as adults we'd be able to read them.
Alan J. Perlis
...basically, avoid comments. If your code needs a comment to be understood, it would be better to rewrite it so it's easier to understand.
Rob Pike
Use four digits. A new millenium is coming.
Jon Bentley (1976)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
Code reuse is the Holy Grail of Software Engineering.
Douglas Crockford
It is often easier to not do something dumb than it is to do something smart.
Anonymous
Question: How does a large software project get to be one year late? Answer: One day at a time!
Fred Brooks
In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble.
Alan J. Perlis
Good programmers invest the effort to learn how to use current practices. Not-so-good programmers just learn the buzzwords, and that’s been a software industry constant for a half century.
Boris Beizer