Programming Quotes

To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.
— Grace Hopper
#programming

2025-07-27 00:03:28 UTC

Such is modern computing: everything simple is made too complicated because it's easy to fiddle with; everything complicated stays complicated because it's hard to fix.
— Rob Pike

2025-07-24 12:03:28 UTC

XML is like violence. Sure, it seems like a quick and easy solution at first, but then it spirals out of control into utter chaos.
— Sarkos

2025-07-20 12:03:28 UTC

Rarely is anyone thanked for the work they did to prevent the disaster that didn't happen.
— Mikko Hypponen
#quality #security

2025-07-20 00:03:28 UTC

i've wondered whether Linux sysfs should be called syphilis
— forsyth

2025-07-17 12:03:27 UTC

(...) Thinking this way will teach you two things about computers: One, there's no magic, no matter how much it looks like there is. There's just work to make things look like magic. And two, it's crazy in there.
— Paul Ford
#computers

2025-07-15 12:03:27 UTC

Rarely is anyone thanked for the work they did to prevent the disaster that didn't happen.
— Mikko Hypponen
#quality #security

2025-07-08 00:03:26 UTC

You're bound to be unhappy if you optimize everything.
— Donald Knuth

2025-07-05 12:03:26 UTC

In programming the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve.
— Paul Graham

2025-07-04 12:03:26 UTC

First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.
— John Johnson

2025-07-04 00:03:26 UTC

Why do we never have time to do it right, but always have time to do it over?
— anonymous
#softwares

2025-06-09 12:03:24 UTC

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.
— Robert A. Heinlein
#programmers #specialization

2025-06-06 12:03:24 UTC

Einstein argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer.
— Fred Brooks

2025-05-24 00:03:22 UTC

These days, the problem isn't how to innovate; it's how to get society to adopt the good ideas that already exist.
— Douglas Engelbart
#ideas #innovation

2025-05-05 12:03:20 UTC

Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases.

2025-05-02 12:03:20 UTC

Good programming is 99% sweat and 1% coffee.
— anonymous
#programming

2025-04-29 12:03:19 UTC

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
— Brian Kernighan

2025-04-17 12:03:18 UTC

Any program that tries to be so generalized and configurable that it could handle any kind of task will either fall short of this goal, or will be horribly broken.
— Chris Wenham

2025-03-24 12:03:17 UTC

The problem with object-oriented languages is they've got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.
— Joe Armstrong, Jason Gorman
#oop

2025-03-21 12:03:17 UTC

We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by incremental renovation: tinkering, improving, planting flower beds.
— Joel Spolsky
#programmers

2025-03-15 12:03:16 UTC

Any program that tries to be so generalized and configurable that it could handle any kind of task will either fall short of this goal, or will be horribly broken.
— Chris Wenham

2025-03-11 00:03:16 UTC

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
— Andy Rooney

2025-02-22 12:03:18 UTC

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
— Andy Rooney

2025-02-15 12:03:18 UTC

No code is faster than no code.
— merb motto

2025-02-14 12:03:18 UTC

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
— Antoine de Saint Exupry
#complexity

2025-01-25 12:05:14 UTC

When in doubt, use brute force.
— Ken Thompson
#programming

2025-01-11 12:03:13 UTC

Well-designed components are easy to replace. Eventually, they will be replaced by ones that are not so easy to replace.
— Sustrik's Law
#complexity

2025-01-08 12:03:13 UTC

The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and avoiding its bastard chaos as effectively as possible.
— E. W. Dijkstra
#complexity

2025-01-07 00:03:13 UTC

The key to making programs fast is to make them do practically nothing.
— Mike Haertel
#complexity

2025-01-05 00:03:13 UTC

If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution.
— Robert Sewell
#java #languages

2024-12-29 12:03:12 UTC

First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.
— John Johnson

2024-12-14 12:03:05 UTC

I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.
— Linus Torvalds

2024-12-12 12:03:06 UTC

The number one skill required for learning any complex system is patience.
— Kelsey Hightower
#complexity

2024-12-06 12:03:08 UTC

Forward thinking was just the thing that made Multics what it is today.
— Erik Quanstrom

2024-11-29 12:03:10 UTC

If the designers of X Windows built cars, there would be no fewer than five steering wheels hidden about the cockpit, none of which followed the same principles but you'd be able to shift gears with your car stereo. Useful feature that.
— Marcus J. Ranum

2024-11-24 12:03:12 UTC

Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love.
— Pete Cordell
#reusing

2024-11-23 12:03:12 UTC

One of the big lessons of a big project is you don't want people that aren't really programmers programming, you'll suffer for it!
— John Carmack

2024-11-03 12:03:18 UTC

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work.
— John Gall

2024-10-28 00:03:21 UTC

When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create.
— Why The Lucky Stiff
#creativity

2024-10-13 12:03:25 UTC

Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.
— George Santayana

2024-10-12 00:03:26 UTC

Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
— Alan Kay

2024-09-24 12:03:32 UTC

The code you write makes you a programmer. The code you delete makes you a good one. The code you don't have to write makes you a great one.
— Mario Fusco
#complexity #productivity #programmers

2024-09-16 00:03:31 UTC

XML is like violence: if it doesn't solve your problem, you aren't using enough of it.

2024-09-15 12:03:31 UTC

There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.
— Bjarne Stroustrup
#languages

2024-08-25 12:03:29 UTC

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
— Brian Kernighan

2024-08-24 00:03:29 UTC

Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.
— Ray Ozzie

2024-08-22 12:03:29 UTC

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
— C. A. R. Hoare
#complexity

2024-08-16 12:03:28 UTC

The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.
— Tom Cargill
#estimating

2024-08-05 12:03:27 UTC

It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.
— Alan Cooper