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Erik Naggum

Erik Naggum Quotes

Computer programmer

Erik Naggum was a Norwegian computer programmer known for his contributions to the Unix and Linux communities. He was respected for his deep understanding of programming languages and his passion for computer science. Naggum became active on the internet in the mid-1990s and made significant contributions to discussions about programming and computer science on various online forums.

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All People Ifs Way Perl Code Language Humans Programmers Thinking Want

Famous Erik Naggum Quotes

“If car manufacturers made cars according to spec the same way software vendors make software according to spec, all five wheels would be of widely differing sizes, it would take one person to steer and another to work the pedals and yet another to operate the user-friendly menu-driven dashboard, and if it would not drive straight ahead without a lot of effort, civil engineers would respond by building spiraling roads around each city.”

Ifs Way Persons Made Would Be Effort Cities Five Car Building Size Driven Wheels Friendly Software Users Engineers Steers Menus Pedals Vendors Civil Engineer Dashboards Specs User Friendly

Author:Erik Naggum

“Historically, labor unions arose when people had gotten a taste of a different lifestyle and were willing to pay a lot more for their basic livelihood and had gotten into a fix they couldn't get out of - because they had accepted the unacceptable to begin with. Accepting something you have to form a labor union to fight after the fact only tells me that people were acting against their own best (or even good) interests for a long time. I don't see any rational, coherent explanation for this sort of behavior in humans, but it's all over the place.”

“Gotos aren't damnable to begin with. If you aren't smart enough to distinguish what's bad about some gotos from all gotos, goto hell.”

Ifs Enough Hell Smart

Author:Erik Naggum

“Ignoring for a moment the power of the American Medical Association, we still wouldn't see a huge amount of books on neurosurgery for dummies in 21 days or whatever. It's just plain inappropriate, and it's intentionally out of people's reach.”

People Stills Book Moments Huge Amount Medical Association Inappropriate Dummy Neurosurgery

Author:Erik Naggum

“Those who write software only for pay should go hurt some other field.”

Should Writing Hurt Pay Fields Software

Author:Erik Naggum

“Very clever implementation techniques are required to implement this insanity correctly and usefully, not to mention that code written with this feature used and abused east and west is exceptionally exciting to debug.”

Used Written Exciting West East Technique Clever Code Features Insanity Implementation Very Clever East And West Used And Abused

Author:Erik Naggum

“Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.”

Writing Wells Mean Art Ideas Quality Novel Kings Art Is Code High Quality Writing Poetry

Author:Erik Naggum

“Counting lines is probably a good idea if you want to print it out and are short on paper, but I fail to see the purpose otherwise.”

Ifs Want Ideas Purpose Lines Failing Paper Print Good Ideas Counting

Author:Erik Naggum

“That's why the smartest companies use Common Lisp, but lie about it so all their competitors think Lisp is slow and C++ is fast.”

Thinking Use Lying Common Company Competitors Lisp

Author:Erik Naggum

“I have long since given up dealing with people who hold idiotic opinions as if they had arrived at them through thinking about them.”

People Ifs Thinking Long Given Opinion Given Up Idiotic Dealing With People

Author:Erik Naggum

“Life is too long to know C++ well.”

Knows Wells Long Life Is

Author:Erik Naggum

“The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the aspects you are willing to accept.”

Important Accepting Willing Aspect

Author:Erik Naggum

“Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. NO is the answer.”

Answers Technology Computer Geek Microsoft Linux

Author:Erik Naggum

“Some people are little more than herd animals, flocking together whenever the world becomes uncomfortable … I am not one of those people. If I had a motto, it would probably be Herd thither, me hither.”

People Ifs World Littles Together Animal Uncomfortable Motto Herds

Author:Erik Naggum

“Constructing a social system that tends to those who agree with it is a piece of cake compared to constructing one that makes those who disagree with it want to obey its principles.”

Want Social Principles Pieces Agree Cake Disagree Social Systems

Author:Erik Naggum

“Getting C programmers to understand that they cause the computer to do less than minimum is intractable. … Ask him why he thinks he should be able to get away with unsafe code, core dumps, viruses, buffer overruns, undetected errors, etc., just because he wants speed.”

Thinking Want Should Able Asks Causes Computer Errors Speed Core Code Etc Get Away Minimum Viruses Programmers Dump Unsafe

Author:Erik Naggum

“Well, take it from an old hand: the only reason it would be easier to program in C is that you can't easily express complex problems in C, so you don't.”

Wells Reason Problem Hands Would Be Easier Program Complexes Complex Problems

Author:Erik Naggum

“C being what it is lacks support for multiple return values, so the notion that it is meaningful to pass pointers to memory objects into which any random function may write random values without having a clue where they point, has not been debunked as the sheer idiocy it really is.”

Writing May Values Memories Support Objects Return Function Notion Meaningful Multiple Sheer Clue Idiocy Pointers

Author:Erik Naggum

“Life is too long to be good at C++ – if you had spent all that time to become good at it, you would essentially have to work with it, too, to get back the costs, and that would just be some long, drawn-out torture.”

Ifs Long Life Is Cost Be Good Torture Get Back

Author:Erik Naggum

“The purpose of human existence is to learn and to understand as much as we can of what came before us, so we can further the sum total of human knowledge in our life.”

Humans Purpose Existence Our Lives Human Existence Human Knowledge

Author:Erik Naggum

“Languages shape the way we think, or don't.”

Thinking Way Language Shapes

Author:Erik Naggum

“Life is hard, and then you die.”

Hard Life Is Dies Life Is Hard

Author:Erik Naggum

“If you are concerned about netiquette, you are either concerned about your own and follow good netiquette, or you are concerned about others and violate good netiquette by bothering people with your concern, as the only netiquette you can actually affect is your own.”

People Ifs Concern Concerned Bother

Author:Erik Naggum

“Suppose we blasted all politicians into space. Would the SETI project find even one of them?”

Space Politician Projects

Author:Erik Naggum

“Like many older fans of Free Software and Open Source, I have discovered that it is really only free in the sense that the time you spend on it is worthless.”

Fans Source Software Worthless Open Source

Author:Erik Naggum

“Sufficiently advanced political correctness is indistinguishable from sarcasm.”

Political Sarcasm Political Correctness Correctness

Author:Erik Naggum

“I have a cat, so I know that when she digs her very sharp claws into my chest or stomach it's really a sign of affection, but I don't see any reason for programming languages to show affection with pain.”

Knows Reason Shows Pain Language Cat Affection Programming Chests Stomach Programming Languages Claws

Author:Erik Naggum

“If you want to know why Lisp doesn't win around you, find a mirror.”

Ifs Knows Want Winning Mirrors Lisp

Author:Erik Naggum

“It's not that Perl programmers are idiots, it's that the language rewards idiotic behavior in a way that no other language or tool has ever done.”

Way Done Language Behavior Tools Rewards Idiot Programming Programmers Programming Languages Idiotic Perl

Author:Erik Naggum

“Unformed people delight in the gaudy and in novelty. Cooked people delight in the ordinary.”

People Ordinary Delight Programming Novelty Software Design Gaudy

Author:Erik Naggum

About the Author

Born: June 13, 1965
Died: June 17, 2009
Known for: Computer programmer
Quotes: 80

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