Best Software Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 14

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The structure of a software system provides the ecology in which code is born, matures, and dies. A well-designed habitat allows for the successful evolution of all the components needed in a software system.”

Wells Dies Born Learning Successful Evolution Needed Structure Code Programming Software Ecology Components Computer Programming Programming Languages Computer Language Habitat

Author:Richard E. Pattis

“Microsoft knows that reliable software is not cost effective. According to studies, 90% to 95% of all bugs are harmless. They're never discovered by users, and they don't affect performance. It's much cheaper to release buggy software and fix the 5% to 10% of bugs people find and complain about.”

People Knows Learning Study Cost Performances Complaining Release Programming Software Users Bugs Microsoft Cheaper

Author:Bruce Schneier

“Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. (Or, sometimes known by] Grove [the head of Intel] giveth and Gates [the head of Microsoft] taketh away.)”

Sometimes Known Learning Faster Programming Gates Software Microsoft Hardware Grove

Author:Niklaus Wirth

“You can drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror as long as nothing is ahead of you. Not enough software professionals are engaged in forward thinking.”

Thinking Long Enough Views Car Mirrors Management Engaged Software Forward Thinking Rear View Rear View Mirror

Author:Bill Joy

“Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatical about the go to statement. I have the uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming could be solved by a single trick, by a simple form of coding discipline!”

Ifs Believe Feelings Problem Form Fall Simple Design Discipline Please Tricks Statements Uncomfortable Programming Software Traps Software Design Uncomfortable Feeling

Author:Edsger Dijkstra

“The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.”

Kind Design Designer Software Implementation Software Design

Author:Donald Knuth

“... the designer of a new system must not only be the implementor and the first large-scale user; the designer should also write the first user manual. ... If I had not participated fully in all these activities, literally hundreds of improvements would never have been made, because I would never have thought of them or perceived why they were important.”

Ifs Should Writing Firsts Has Beens Made Important Design Activity Improvement Scales Designer Software Users Manuals Large Scale Software Design

Author:Donald Knuth

“I think psychoanalyze-pinhead is the important lesson of GNU Emacs.”

Thinking Important Design Lessons Software Important Lessons Software Design

Author:Todd Bennett

“The real tight interface is between the book and the reader-the world of the book is plugged right into your brain, never mind the [virtual reality] bodysuit.”

World Mind Book Real Reality Brain Design Reader Software Virtual Reality Interfaces Software Design

Author:Bill McKibben

“When we use a language, we should commit ourselves to knowing it, being able to read it, and writing it idiomatically.”

Should Writing Use Able Language Knowing Design Commit Software Software Design

Author:Ron Jeffries

“Learning research tells us that the time lag from experiment to feedback is critical.”

Design Research Critical Experiments Software Feedback Software Design Lag

Author:Kent Beck

“We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK.”

Thinking Trying Sound Design Software Perfectionist Software Design

Author:Donald Fagen

“Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.”

Thinking Men Wells May Plans Design Originals Software Infant Cradle Progression Grown Man Software Design

Author:Edmund Burke

“Inspiration comes from the act of writing.”

Writing Inspiration Design Software Software Design

Author:Steve Doll

“... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure.”

Giving Trying Humans Human Beings Effort Design Credit Limitation Vain Latter Software Software Design

Author:Edsger Dijkstra

“To a database person, every nail looks like a thumb. Or something like that.”

Looks Persons Design Software Nails Thumbs Software Design Databases

Author:Jamie Zawinski

“Java development without a little heresy would be a dull place, and a dangerous one.”

Littles Would Be Dangerous Design Development Dull Software Heresy Software Design Java

Book:Better, Faster, Lighter Java

Source: Better, Faster, Lighter Java

“The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.”

Design Hardest Features Software Software Design

Author:Donald A. Norman

“A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.”

Writing Hard Simple Results Style Design Hard Work Software Software Design Writing Style

Author:William Zinsser

“Systems programmers are the high priests of a low cult.”

Design Lows Priests Software Cult Programmers Software Design

Author:Bob Barton

“The general problem with ambitious systems is complexity. [...] it is important to emphasize the value of simplicity and elegance, for complexity has a way of compounding difficulties.”

Way Important Problem Values Design Difficulty Simplicity Complexity Software Ambitious Elegance Software Design Simplicity And Elegance

Author:Fernando J. Corbato

“Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.”

Hard Achieve Design Hard Work Discipline Simplicity Programming Software Appreciated Elegance Computer Programming Software Design Simplicity And Elegance

Author:Edsger Dijkstra

“Adding last-minute features, whether in response to competitive pressure, as a developer's pet feature, or on the whim of management, causes more bugs in software than almost anything else.”

Lasts Causes Minutes Pressure Management Response Features Programming Pet Software Requirements Bugs Whim Developers Software Engineering Last Minute

Book:Debugging Applications: Microsoft

Source: Debugging Applications: Microsoft

“The job of the average manager requires a shift in focus every few minutes. The job of the average software developer requires that the developer not shift focus more often than every few hours.”

Jobs Hours Focus Minutes Average Managers Programming Teamwork Software Developers Software Engineering Staffing

Book:Software Project Survival Guide

Source: Software Project Survival Guide

“Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or the project team lacks the resolve to conduct a project effectively.”

Two Reason Failing Team Projects Programming Resolve Teamwork Software Software Engineering Staffing

Book:Software Project Survival Guide

Source: Software Project Survival Guide

“In software, the chain isn't as strong as its weakest link; it's as weak as all the weak links multiplied together.”

Together Strong Weak Chains Programming Links Teamwork Software Software Engineering Staffing Weakest Link

Book:Code Complete

Source: Code Complete

“Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor.”

Poor Cost Increase Management Factors Programming Teamwork Software Software Engineering Staffing Poor Management

Author:Barry Boehm

“"(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010." Every entrepreneur has a few slides about how the market potential for his segment is tens of billions. It doesn't matter if the product is bar mitzah planning software or 802.11 chip sets. Venture capitalists don't believe this type of forecast because it's the fifth one of this magnitude that they've heard that day. Entrepreneurs would do themselves a favor by simply removing any reference to market size estimates from consulting firms.”

“Software: These programs give instruction to the CPU, which processes billions of tiny facts called bytes, and within a fraction of a second it sends you an error message that requires you to call the customer-support hot line and be placed on hold for approximately the life-span of a caribou.”

Giving Facts Process Lines Support Computer Messages Program Hot Errors Customers Billions Tiny Software Instruction Fractions Life Span Customer Support

Author:Dave Barry

“I think the most difficult thing had been scaling the infrastructure. Trying to support the response we had received from our users and the number of people that were interested in using the software.”

People Thinking Trying Difficult Numbers Support Response Software Users Infrastructure Difficult Things

Author:Shawn Fanning

“For music, unlike a $500 software program, people are paying a buck or two a song, and it's those dollars and pennies that have to add up to pay for not just the cost of that song, but the investment in the next song.”

People Two Song Next Pay Cost Program Dollars Add Investment Software Pennies Bucks

Author:Hilary Rosen

“I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their work.”

Thinking Important Style Workers Software Avoiding Imposing Cognitive

Author:Edward Tufte

“The amateur software engineer is always in search of magic.”

Magic Software Engineers

Book:Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications

Source: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications

“The task of the software development team is to engineer the illusion of simplicity.”

Team Development Illusion Tasks Simplicity Software Engineers Software Development

Book:Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications

Source: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications

“You get the software you pay for. In every sense. To the nth degree. That's the way the world works.”

World Way Pay Degrees Software

Author:Dave Winer

“Then people started using it more and more and it became the most downloaded software on the internet.”

People Internet Software

Author:Niklas Zennstrom

“We decided that the French could never write user-friendly software because they're so rude.”

Writing Decided Friendly Software Users Rude User Friendly

Book:Microserfs: A Novel

Source: Microserfs: A Novel

“I want people to use Perl. I want to be a positive ingredient of the world and make my American history. So, whatever it takes to give away my software and get it used, that's great.”

People World Want Giving Use Used Ingredients Software American History Whatever It Takes Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“As every new breed of virus is conceived, created and released into the wild, another small change is made to the anti-virus software to combat the new threat.”

Made Change Threat Combat Software Viruses Small Changes

Author:Glenn Turner

“The days when you needed amazing Silicon Graphics machines to run animation software are gone now.”

Running Gone Needed Machines Software Animation Silicon

Author:Dave Rowntree

“While the creative works from the 16th century can still be accessed and used by others, the data in some software programs from the 1990s is already inaccessible.”

Stills Used Creative Century Program Data Software Creative Work Inaccessible

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“You know, IBM was almost knocked out of the box by other types of computer software and manufacturing.”

Knows Type Computer Boxes Software Manufacturing Ibm Computer Software

Author:Roy Romer

“We can provide beta software to our developers in advance of the general public. We can easily link up with external partners, customers, and suppliers.”

Customers Partners Links Software Developers General Public Suppliers Beta

Author:James L. Barksdale

“Our technology is very scalable. Our software can accommodate enormous numbers of clients. It's a marvelous opportunity. We'll keep developing products.”

Opportunity Numbers Technology Economy Products Enormous Developing Software Clients Marvelous Accommodate

Author:Jay Chiat

“None of our competitors have ever made two systems that run the same software.”

Made Two Running Economy Software Competitors

Author:Trip Hawkins

“The software patent problem is not limited to Mono. Software patents affect everyone writing software today.”

Writing Problem Today Software Patents Mono

Author:Miguel de Icaza

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