Best learning & program Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.”

Want Humans Change Human Beings Attitude Learning Computer Program Tasks Simplicity Traditional Programming Software Construction Explaining Computer Programming Programming Languages Computer Language

Author:Donald Knuth

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

“More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a 'back to basics' program for temporal and spiritual welfare.”

“I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.”

People Thinking Matter Helping Technology Learning Computer Training Program Inevitable Programming Treatment Computer Programming Programming Languages Computer Language

Author:Alan Perlis

“Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.”

Way Writing Humans Hard Language Process Ability Learning Program Simplicity Ugly Code Bridges Perceive Related Complexity Programming Collapse Engineers Elegant Liable Suspension

Author:Eric S. Raymond

“The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.”

Way Writing Language Learning Program Programming Computer Programming Programming Languages Computer Language

Book:C Programming Language

Source: C Programming Language

“Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.”

Ifs Thinking Learning Pieces Progress Program Train Code Programming

Author:Edsger Dijkstra

“We have also obtained a glimpse of another crucial idea about languages and program design. This is the approach of statified design, the notion that a complex system should be structured as a sequence of levels that are described using a sequence of languages. Each level is constructed by combining parts that are regarded as primitive at that level, and the parts constructed at each level are used as primitives at the next level. The language used at each level of a stratified design has primitives, means of combination, and means of abstraction appropriate to that level of detail.”

“The hardest part of the software task is arriving at a complete and consistent specification, and much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.”

Facts Learning Building Program Tasks Essence Hardest Programming Consistent Software Arriving Software Engineering Specifications Debugging

Author:Fred Brooks

“Our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible.”

Should Reason Process Space Learning Wise Masters Intellectual Program Relation Spread Limitation Evolve Programming Gaps Programmers Static Correspondence

Author:Edsger Dijkstra

“Yes, I share your concern: how to program well -though a teachable topic- is hardly taught. The situation is similar to that in mathematics, where the explicit curriculum is confined to mathematical results; how to do mathematics is something the student must absorb by osmosis, so to speak. One reason for preferring symbol-manipulating, calculating arguments is that their design is much better teachable than the design of verbal/pictorial arguments. Large-scale introduction of courses on such calculational methodology, however, would encounter unsurmoutable political problems.”

“The first step in fixing a broken program is getting it to fail repeatably [on the simplest example possible].”

Firsts Steps Learning Failing Example Broken Program Programming First Steps Simplest Fixing Computer Programming Programming Languages Computer Language

Author:Tom Duff

“In those days [batch processing] programmers never even documented their programs, because it was assumed that nobody else would ever use them. Now, however, time-sharing had made exchanging software trivial: you just stored one copy in the public repository and therby effectively gave it to the world. Immediately people began to document their programs and to think of them as being usable by others. They started to build on each other's work.”

People Thinking World Made Use Learning Program Programming Copies Software Documents Programmers Computer Programming Programming Languages Processing Computer Language Exchanging

Author:Robert Fano

“Object-oriented programming as it emerged in Simula 67 allows software structure to be based on real-world structures, and gives programmers a powerful way to simplify the design and construction of complex programs.”

“What is the central core of the subject [computer science]? What is it that distinguishes it from the separate subjects with which it is related? What is the linking thread which gathers these disparate branches into a single discipline. My answer to these questions is simple -it is the art of programming a computer. It is the art of designing efficient and elegant methods of getting a computer to solve problems, theoretical or practical, small or large, simple or complex. It is the art of translating this design into an effective and accurate computer program.”

“To treat programming scientifically, it must be possible to specify the required properties of programs precisely. Formality is certainly not an end in itself. The importance of formal specifications must ultimately rest in their utility -in whether or not they are used to improve the quality of software or to reduce the cost of producing and maintaining software.”

“...One of the most important lessons, perhaps, is the fact that SOFTWARE IS HARD. From now on I shall have significantly greater respect for every successful software tool that I encounter. During the past decade I was surprised to learn that the writing of programs for TeX and Metafont proved to be much more difficult than all the other things I had done (like proving theorems or writing books). The creation of good software demand a significiantly higher standard of accuracy than those other things do, and it requires a longer attention span than other intellectual tasks.”

“Composing computer programs to solve scientific problems is like writing poetry. You must choose every word with care and link it with the other words in perfect syntax. There is no place for verbosity or carelessness. To become fluent in a computer lnaguage demands almost the antithesis of modern loose thinking. It requires many interactive sessions, the hands-on use of the device. You do not learn a foreign language from a book, rather you have to live in the country for year to let the langauge become an automatic part of you, and the same is true for computer languages.”

“The discipline of programming is most like sorcery. Both use precise language to instruct inanimate objects to do our bidding. Small mistakes in programs or spells can lead to completely unforseen behavior: e.g., see the story, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Neither study is easy: "...her [Galinda's] early appetite for sorcery had waned once she'd heard what a grind it was to learn spells and, worse, to understand them." from the book "Wicked" by G. Maguire.”

“A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.”

Thinking Way Language Knowing Learning Program Programming Computer Programming Computer Science Programming Languages Computer Language Programming Funny

Author:Alan Perlis

“It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?”

Self Fun Attention Teach Learning Plans Modern Students Discipline Program Details Critical Programming Grain Attention To Detail Modern Education

Author:Alan Perlis

“To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.”

Learning Program Machines Programming

Author:Alan Perlis

“You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.”

Thinking Knows Writing Certain Teach Learning Program Programming Programming Languages You Think You Know Software Design

Author:Alan Perlis

“There is one very good reason to learn programming, but it has nothing to do with preparing for high-tech careers or with making sure one is computer literate in order to avoid being cynically manipulated by the computers of the future. The real value of learning to program can only be understood if we look at learning to program as an exercise of the intellect, as a kind of modern-day Latin that we learn to sharpen our minds.”

Source: The cognitive computer: on language, learning, and artificial intelligence

“Once you succeed in writing the programs for [these] complicated algorithms, they usually run extremely fast. The computer doesn't need to understand the algorithm, its task is only to run the programs.”

Needs Writing Running Learning Succeed Computer Program Tasks Complicated Programming Algorithms

Author:Robert Tarjan

“Relationship and connectedness are the pre-condition for change. Every meeting, every process, every training program has to get people connected first. Otherwise the content falls on deaf ears. So small groups are an essential building block to any future you want to create.”

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