Programming Quotes

Programming quotes tooted every few hours.

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Last Notes

2025-04-17 12:03:18

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

2025-04-15 00:03:18

One of the best programming skills you can have is knowing when to walk away for awhile.
— Oscar Godson
#programming

2025-04-13 00:03:18

Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence, simplicity does.
— Larry Bossidy

2025-04-09 12:03:18

So much complexity in software comes from trying to make one thing do two things.
— Ryan Singer

2025-04-01 00:03:17

A good API is not just easy to use but also hard to misuse.
— JBD
#api

2025-03-25 00:03:17

Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is bafflingthe incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration. Possibly this trend results from a mistaken belief that using a somewhat mysterious device confers an aura of power on the user.
— Niklaus Wirth

2025-03-23 12:03:17

You cannot manage that which you cannot measure.
— Jim Barksdale
#management

2025-03-15 12:03:16

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

2025-03-14 12:03:16

Don't comment bad code rewrite it.
— P. J. Plaugher, Brian W. Kernighan
#commenting #refactoring

2025-03-11 12:03:16

Programming graphics in X is like finding the square root of PI using Roman numerals.
— Henry Spencer

2025-03-07 00:03:17

Software efficiency halves every 18 months, compensating Moore's Law.
— May's Law

2025-02-26 12:03:17

Unix is a junk OS designed by a committee of PhDs.
— Dave Cutler

2025-02-18 12:03:18

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
— Bill Gates

2025-02-17 00:03:18

Almost without exception, the best products are developed by teams with desire to solve a problem; not a company's need to fulfil a strategy.
— Jeff Weiner
#corporate

2025-02-15 12:03:18

No code is faster than no code.
— merb motto

2025-01-19 12:03:14

The best code is no code at all.

2025-01-11 12:03:13

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

2025-01-11 00:03:13

PHP is a minor evil perpetrated and created by incompetent amateurs, whereas Perl is a great and insidious evil perpetrated by skilled but perverted professionals.

2025-01-07 00:03:13

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

2025-01-07 00:03:13

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

2025-01-05 00:03:13

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

2024-12-29 12:03:12

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

2024-12-15 00:03:05

Without requirements or design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file.
— Louis Srygley
#bugs #programming #specification

2024-12-09 00:03:07

Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.
— Linus Torvalds
#theory

2024-11-23 12:03:12

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

2024-11-20 00:03:13

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

2024-11-03 12:03:18

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

2024-11-03 12:03:18

2024-10-13 12:03:25

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

2024-10-12 00:03:26

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

2024-09-15 12:03:31

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

2024-09-09 12:03:30

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller you're part of the road.
— Stewart Brand
#technology

2024-09-08 12:03:30

One of the best programming skills you can have is knowing when to walk away for awhile.
— Oscar Godson
#programming

2024-09-08 12:03:30

One of the best programming skills you can have is knowing when to walk away for awhile.
— Oscar Godson
#programming

2024-09-03 00:03:30

Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code.
— Christopher Thompson
#debugging

2024-08-25 12:03:29

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

2024-08-16 12:03:28

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

2024-08-15 12:03:28

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

2024-08-12 12:03:28

An evolving system increases its complexity unless work is done to reduce it.
— Meir Lehman
#complexity

2024-08-05 12:03:27

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

2024-08-01 00:03:28

If McDonald's were run like a software company, one out of every hundred Big Macs would give you food poisoning, and the response would be, "We're sorry, here is a coupon for two more".
— Mark Minasi
#bugs #softwares

2024-07-27 12:03:28

A computer is like a mischievous genie. It will give you exactly what you ask for, but not always what you want.
— Joe Sondow
#computers

2024-07-25 12:03:28

Hiring bad developers is like drinking seawater. It seems to satisfy a need while actually increasing it.
— Michael Nygard
#programmers

2024-07-24 12:03:28

It seems to me more like you use foresight and pessimism to avoid getting into situations where you need to demonstrate exceptional programming ability.
— mister_borogove speaking to jwz

2024-07-21 12:03:28

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

2024-07-20 00:03:28

There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.
— Bjarne Stroustrup
#complexity

2024-07-19 12:03:30

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

2024-07-15 12:03:28

No code is faster than no code.
— merb motto
#complexity

2024-07-14 00:03:29

A computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match

2024-07-08 12:03:19

A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.
— Doug Linder
#programmers

2024-06-19 12:02:30

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
— E. W. Dijkstra
#complexity

2024-06-02 12:01:47

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.
— Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger

2024-05-31 12:01:42

Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
— Scott Adams

2024-04-21 12:00:35

Languages that try to disallow idiocy become themselves idiotic.
— Rob Pike

2024-04-16 00:00:21

My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.
— P. J. Plauger

2024-03-29 11:59:35

The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
— E. W. Dijkstra

2024-03-28 11:59:32

If we have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine.
— Jim Barksdale
#management

2024-03-27 11:59:30

Premature optimization, that's like a fart. Premature abstraction is like taking a dump on another developer's desk.
— Chris Eric

2024-03-22 11:59:17

2024-03-19 11:59:09

As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.
— Dave Parnas

2024-01-31 11:59:20

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

2024-01-30 11:59:21

Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity.
— Dennis Ritchie

2024-01-19 23:59:26

Everything in software architecture is a trade-off.
— First Law of Software Architecture
#architecture

2024-01-15 23:59:28

The object-oriented model makes it easy to build up programs by accretion. What this often means, in practice, is that it provides a structured way to write spaghetti code.
— Paul Graham
#oop

2024-01-14 11:59:28

2024-01-11 11:59:30

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

2024-01-04 23:59:32

The central enemy of reliability is complexity.
— Geer et al

2024-01-01 11:59:34

"That hardly ever happens" is another way of saying "it happens".
— Douglas Crockford
#bugs

2023-12-29 23:59:34

Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it's bad.
— Cory House
#complexity

2023-12-28 23:59:34

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

2023-12-28 11:59:36

Almost every attempt at making something better will be regarded by someone else as a personal attack.
— Chris Sacca
#collaboration

2023-12-25 11:59:36

Perl: The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption.
— Keith Bostic
#languages #perl

2023-12-24 23:59:36

Debugging time increases as a square of the program's size.
— Chris Wenham

2023-12-22 23:59:37

Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn't take it away from you. I'm happy to share what I can, because I'm in it for the love of programming. The Ferraris are just gravy, honest!
— John Carmack

2023-12-22 11:59:37

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
— Bill Gates

2023-12-20 23:59:37

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
— L. Peter Deutsch
#functions

2023-12-13 23:59:40

Comparing a computer language to a human language is like comparing an operating system kernel to a popcorn kernel.
— kryptkpr

2023-12-06 23:59:43

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

2023-11-04 23:59:55

Any app that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript.
— Jeff Atwood
#javascript

2023-10-31 11:59:57

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
— Isaac Asimov
#debugging

2023-10-23 11:59:59

As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.
— Dave Parnas

2023-06-12 08:00:00

Data dominates. If youve chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.
— Rob Pike
#data

2023-06-11 18:00:00

Java is to JavaScript as ham is to hamster.
— Jeremy Keith
#java #javascript

2023-06-10 08:00:00

Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity.
— Dennis Ritchie

2023-06-04 06:00:00

The trick is to fix the problem you have, rather than the problem you want.
— Bram Cohen

2023-06-01 16:00:00

The first rule of functions is that they should be small. The second rule of functions is that they should be smaller than that.
— Robert C. Martin
#functions

2023-05-20 02:00:00

Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.
— Linus Torvalds
#programmers