“I hope to see Ruby help every programmer in the world to be productive, and to enjoy programming, and to be happy. That is the primary purpose of Ruby language.” WorldHelpingPurposeLanguageEnjoyPrimariesProgrammingProductiveProgrammersRubies Author:Yukihiro Matsumoto
“I don't know how to stop it, there was never any intent to write a programming language [...] I have absolutely no idea how to write a programming language, I just kept adding the next logical step on the way.” KnowsWayWritingIdeasNextLanguageStepsKnow HowNo IdeaProgrammingLogicalProgramming Languages Author:Rasmus Lerdorf
“A programming language that is sort of like Pascal except more like assembly except that it isn't very much like either one, or anything else. It is either the best language available to the art today, or it isn't.” ArtTodayLanguageHumorousAvailableProgrammingAssemblyProgramming LanguagesPascal Author:Raymond Simard
“In my daily work, I work on very large, complex, distributed systems built out of many Python modules and packages. The focus is very similar to what you find, for example, in Java and, in general, in systems programming languages.” LanguageFocusExampleBuiltComplexesProgrammingPackagesProgramming LanguagesJavaPythonDaily Work Author:Guido van Rossum
“The flip side of the coin was that even good programmers and language designers tended to do terrible extensions when they were in the heat of programming, because design is something that is best done slowly and carefully.” DoneLanguageSidesDesignTerribleHeatDesignerProgrammingExtensionsCoinsFlipProgrammers Author:Alan Kay
“My programming language was solder.” LanguageProgrammingProgramming Languages Author:Terry Pratchett
“Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.” LittlesProblemLanguagePowerfulEffortGoneComputerScientistSolveDevelopingProgrammingInteractionProgramming LanguagesComputationDevising Author:Donald A. Norman
“Job Control Language is the worst programming language ever designed anywhere by anybody for any purpose.” JobsPurposeLanguageWorstProgrammingProgramming Languages Author:Fred Brooks
“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.” WellsArtBookLanguageKnownDesignParticularComputerMajorsSeriesTitlesAnalysisContributionProgrammingWell KnownComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesAlgorithms Author:Donald Knuth
“And C++ programming languages, we own those, have licensed them out multiple times, obviously. We have a lot of royalties coming to us from C++.” LanguageProgrammingMultipleRoyaltyProgramming Languages Author:Darl McBride
“C++ is in that inconvenient spot where it doesn't help make things simple enough to be truly usable for prototyping or simple GUI programming, and yet isn't the lean system programming language that C is that actively encourages you to use simple and direct constructs.” EnoughHelpingUseLanguageSimpleDirectSpotsProgrammingConstructsProgramming LanguagesInconvenient Author:Linus Torvalds
“Most programming languages are decidedly inferior to mathematical notation and are little used as tools of thought in ways that would be considered significant by, say, an applied mathematician.” WayLittlesWould BeUsedLanguageToolsSignificantMathematicalProgrammingInferiorsMathematicianProgramming Languages Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“The properties of executability and universality associated with programming languages can be combined, in a single language, with the well-known properties of mathematical notation which make it such an effective tool of thought.” WellsLanguageKnownToolsPropertyMathematicalProgrammingWell KnownProgramming LanguagesUniversality Author: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.” NeedsReasonLanguageGenerationsDesignComputerCharacteristicsProgrammingUnfortunateEfficiencyProgramming LanguagesCircularity Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“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.” DifferentSometimesShowsLanguagePerspectiveMathematicsInsightMathematicalRangeProgrammingInterpretationBroadsApplicationNeverthelessStrictTopicsGrammarContradictoryProgramming LanguagesDifferent PerspectiveUniformityProliferation Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“The precision provided (or enforced) by programming languages and their execution can identify lacunas, ambiguities, and other areas of potential confusion in conventional [mathematical] notation.” LanguageAreasConfusionMathematicalProgrammingExecutionConventionalAmbiguityPrecisionProgramming Languages Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“With the computer and programming languages, mathematics has newly-acquired tools, and its notation should be reviewed in the light of them. The computer may, in effect, be used as a patient, precise, and knowledgeable "native speaker" of mathematical notation.” ShouldMayLightUsedLanguageEffectsComputerToolsMathematicsPatientMathematicalProgrammingNativeSpeakersPreciseProgramming LanguagesKnowledgeable Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“Now, it's my belief that Python is a lot easier than to teach to students programming and teach them C or C++ or Java at the same time because all the details of the languages are so much harder. Other scripting languages really don't work very well there either.” WellsBeliefLanguageTeachStudentsEasierHarderDetailsProgrammingJavaPython Author:Guido van Rossum
“I think that great programming is not all that dissimilar to great art. Once you start thinking in concepts of programming it makes you a better person...as does learning a foreign language, as does learning math, as does learning how to read.” ThinkingPersonsDoeArtLanguageConceptsMathProgrammingGreat ArtBetter PersonForeign LanguageLearning Math Author:Jack Dorsey
“It is the role of the artistic coder to question the coding languages, both through self-reflection and by using them for unintended purposes. These coders introduce multiplicity where none existed and challenge definitions of intent for the entire environment of programming language, machine and system.” SelfPoetryPurposeLiteratureLanguageChallengesRolesEnvironmentReflectionMachinesDefinitionsArtisticProgrammingIntroducingSelf ReflectionProgramming LanguagesMultiplicityCoders Author:Stephanie Strickland
“Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.” LanguageGirlfriendProgrammingProgramming Languages Author:Derek Sivers
“My favorite programming languages are Lisp and C. However, since around 1992 I have worked mainly on free software activism, which means I am too busy to do much programming. Around 2008 I stopped doing programming projects.” MeanLanguageProjectsBusyMy FavoriteActivismProgrammingSoftwareToo BusyProgramming LanguagesLisp Author:Richard Stallman
“The establishment of formal standards for proofs about programs... and the proposal that the semantics of a programming language may be defined independently of all processors for that language, by establishing standards of rigor for proofs about programs in the language, appears to be novel.” MayLanguageNovelStandardsProgramProofDefinedProgrammingEstablishmentFormalProposalProgramming LanguagesRigorSemanticsProcessors Author:Robert W. Floyd