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Quote by Kenneth E. Iverson

“Overemphasis of efficiency leads to an unfortunate circularity in design: for reasons of efficiency early programming languages reflected the characteristics of the early computers, and each generation of computers reflects the needs of the programming languages of the preceding generation.”

Quote by Kenneth E. Iverson

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Kenneth E. Iverson
Kenneth E. Iverson

Kenneth E. Iverson was a renowned computer scientist known for his contributions to computer programming languages and mathematical notation. He is best known for inventing the APL programming language, a language for scientific computing, and was awarded the Turing Award in 1979 for his contributions to the field. more

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“Although mathematical notation undoubtedly possesses parsing rules, they are rather loose, sometimes contradictory, and seldom clearly stated. [...] The proliferation of programming languages shows no more uniformity than mathematics. Nevertheless, programming languages do bring a different perspective. [...] Because of their application to a broad range of topics, their strict grammar, and their strict interpretation, programming languages can provide new insights into mathematical notation.”