Quotessence
Home / Topics / Programming Languages Quotes

Programming Languages Quotes

Browse 246 quotes about Programming Languages.

Related topics

Computer ProgrammingComputer LanguageLanguageLearningProgrammersComputerSoftwareComputer ProgrammersSoftware EngineeringComputer ScienceSoftware DesignProgramming FunnyIfsThinkingComputer SoftwareWayCodeSimplicityDesignTechnologyShouldPeopleSimplicity In DesignToolsImportantLispProblemTeacherUseWellsWritingEducationKnowsRealTeachUsedWorldDebuggingFunny ComputerHumansMathematicalMindSimple

Programming Languages Quotes

“The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.”

EasyStuffRealizingImaginationAirMediaCreationPoetPureCreatingCapableStructureProgrammingFlexibleCastlesPolishProgrammersComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesExertionComputer LanguageComputer ProgrammersCastles In The AirRework
Author:Fred Brooks
Create image

“A computer is like a violin. You can imagine a novice trying first a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they aren’t flexible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.”

TryingUsePurposeSoundImagineHeardParticularTerribleComputerProgramArgumentScientistProgrammingLatterViolinComputer ProgrammingTypewritersProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageNovicesPhonograph
Author:Marvin Minsky
Create image

“We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers.”

MindHumansJobsLanguageApproachTasksDifficultySticksAppreciationHumbleLimitationProgrammingHuman MindModestElegantProgrammersProgramming Languages
Author:Edsger Dijkstra
Create image

“Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.”

LearningManagementPrioritiesFasterRight ThingProgrammingSubstitutesTime ManagementDoing The Right ThingComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer Language
Book:First Things First Every Day: Daily Reflections- Because Where You're Headed Is More Important Than How Fast You Get There
Create image

“I can only think that the book is read because it deals with the difficulties of schooling, which do not change. Please note: the difficulties, not the problems. Problems are solved or disappear with the revolving times. Difficulities remain. It will always be difficult to teach well, to learn accurately; to read, write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and start one's education or anothers.”

ThinkingWritingWellsI CanBookProblemDifficultDealsTeachLearningPleaseDifficultyNotesDisappearAcquireProgrammingSchoolingComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageRevolving
Author:Jacques Barzun
Create image

“A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.”

IfsThinkingImportantUseLanguageLearningInfluenceHabitAspectToolsTrainProfoundProgrammingElusiveComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer Language
Book:A Discipline of Programming
Create image

“Text is linear; it is black and white; it doesn't zoom around the page in 3-D; it isn't intelligent by itself; in fact, in terms of immediate reaction it is quite boring. I can't imagine a single preliterate was ever wowed at the first sight of text, and yet text has been the basis of arguably the most fundamental intellectual transformation of the human species. It and its subforms, such as algebra, have made science education for all a plausible goal.”

FirstsHumansHas BeensMadeI CanFactsGoalBlackTermWhiteLearningImaginePagesIntellectualSightBasesTransformationIntelligentFundamentalsSpeciesBoringReactionsProgrammingBlack And WhiteComputer ProgrammingLinearProgramming LanguagesAlgebraPlausibleComputer LanguageHuman SpeciesEducation For AllZoomScience Education
Author:Andrea diSessa
Create image

“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.”

PeopleThinkingWorldMadeUseLearningProgramProgrammingCopiesSoftwareDocumentsProgrammersComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesProcessingComputer LanguageExchanging
Author:Robert Fano
Create image

“Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. ... The geniuses of the computer field, on the the other hand, are the people with the keenest aesthetic senses, the ones who are capable of creating beauty. Beauty is decisive at every level: the most important interfaces, the most important programming languages, the winning algorithms are the beautiful ones.”

PeopleImportantHandsBeautifulWinningLanguageLevelsTechnologyLearningFieldsGeniusComputerCreatingCapableUltimateComplicatedDefenseSensesComplexityProgrammingSoftwareAestheticComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageComputingAlgorithmsInterfacesCreating Beauty
Author:David Gelernter
Create image

“It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.”

ThinkingI CanRealHandsJobsArtistSidesImaginationCreativeLearningElementsIncrediblesBoundariesLimitationProgrammingEngineersPreciseProgrammersComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageComputer Programmers
Author:Andy Hertzfeld
Create image

“In the development of the understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from the recognition of similarities between certain objects, situations, or processes in the real world and the decision to concentrate on these similarities and to ignore, for the time being, their differences.”

WorldHumansRealCertainProcessUnderstandingDifferencesDecisionPowerfulSituationLearningObjectsDevelopmentToolsComplexesAvailableIntellectAriseRecognitionProgrammingMost PowerfulReal WorldAbstractionSimilarityComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer Language
Author:Tony Hoare
Create image

“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.”

EndsUsedQualityLearningCostProgramTreatsImportancePropertyProgrammingSoftwareFormalMaintainingUtilityComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageFormalitySpecifications
Author:Jim Horning
Create image

“When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.”

FeelsIdeasHardLyingCertainSimpleLearningInformationEasierConceptsTechniqueProgrammingExceptionChaptersDeliberateComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesSupplementsComputer Language
Author:Donald Knuth
Create image

“There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If the race is won by our tools, then systems will eventually become easier to use and more reliable. If not, they will continue to become harder to use and less reliable for all but a relatively small set of common tasks. Given how hard thinking is, if those intellectual tools are to succeed, they will have to substitute calculation for thought.”

IfsThinkingHardUseGivenUnderstandingAbilityCommonRaceLearningEasierSucceedIntellectualToolsTasksHarderComplexityProgrammingSubstitutesCalculationsComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer Language
Author:Leslie Lamport
Create image