Programming Quotes

“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra

“So if you want to go fast, if you want to get done quickly, if you want your code to be easy to write, make it easy to read.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

“Code without tests is bad code. It doesn't matter how well written it is; it doesn't matter how pretty or object-oriented or well-encapsulated it is. With tests, we can change the behavior of our code quickly and verifiably. Without them, we really don't know if our code is getting better or worse.”
― Michael Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code

“If you're good at the debugger it means you spent a lot of time debugging. I don't want you to be good at the debugger.”
― Robert C. Martin

“The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.”
― Ada Lovelace

“It is not only the violin that shapes the violinist, we are all shaped by the tools we train ourselves to use, and in this respect programming languages have a devious influence: they shape our thinking habits.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra

“Redundant comments are just places to collect lies and misinformation.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

“If you've never programmed a computer, you should. There's nothing like it in the whole world. When you program a computer, it does exactly what you tell it to do. It's like designing a machine — any machine, like a car, like a faucet, like a gas-hinge for a door — using math and instructions. It's awesome in the truest sense: it can fill you with awe.”
― Cory Doctorow, Little Brother

“It has all the right ingredients: rich contents, friendly, personal language, subtle humor, the right references, and a plethora of pointers to resources.”
― Steven S. Skiena, Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual

“Generally, the craft of programming is the factoring of a set of requirements into a a set of functions and data structures.”
― Douglas Crockford, JavaScript: The Good Parts

“As Lynn writes: "What angers me is the loss of control. At any moment someone could come to me, be dressed the right way and use the right code, and I no longer have free will. I will do anything that person requests.
I hate them for that. Nothing else is as bad as known that I am always out of control; knowing that I am still a laboratory experiment, a puppet whose strings are hidden from ever but my handlers, and I don't yet know how to break free.
p216”
― Lynn Hersha, Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed to Kill for Their Country

“In the information age, the barriers [to entry into programming] just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don't need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the dedication to go through with it. We slept on floors. We waded across rivers.”
― John D. Carmack

“Programming is the act of installing internal, pre-established reactions to external stimuli so that a person will automatically react in a predetermined manner to things like an auditory, visual or tactile signal or perform a specific set of actions according to a date and/or time.”
― Alison Miller, Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

“Also, look for “floating alters.” These are not deliberately created parts of the system, but alters that were accidentally split off at the same time as others.”
― Alison Miller, Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

“Trying to improve software quality by increasing the amount of testing is like trying to lose weight by weighing yourself more often. What you eat before you step onto the scale determines how much you will weigh, and the software-development techniques you use determine how many errors testing will find.”
― Steve McConnell, Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

“Carmack was of the moment. His ruling force was focus. Time existed for him not in some promising future or sentimental past but in the present condition, the intricate web ol problems and solutions, imagination and code. He kept nothing from the past–no pictures, no records, no games, no computer disks. He didn’t even save copies of his first games, Wraith and Shadowforge. There was no yearbook to remind of his time at Shadowforge. There was no yearbook to remind of his time at school, no magazine copies of his early publications. He kept nothing but what he needed at the time. His bedroom consisted of a lamp, a pillow, a blanket, and a stack of books. There was no mattress. All he brought with him from home was a cat named Mitzi (a gift from his stepfamily) with a mean streak and a reckless bladder.”
― David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

“Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code.”
― Dan Salomon

“There is nothing good or bad about knowledge itself; morality lies in the application of knowledge.”
― Jon Erickson

“Trying to become something in a world where everyone wants to become something is a thing that needs God's programming.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Life doesn't have a ctrl-z. Type wisely.”
― Imtiaz Iqbal

“More proof that Lynn is still meant to continue with the government programme occurred during the winter of 2000, when she was sitting at a cafeteria table at the area college. It was later in the afternoon when a few people congregated there with books spread out so they could study while drinking coffee or snacking. Many tables were empty, yet after Lynn had been sitting for a few moments, an elderly man sat down across from her.
The old man seemed familiar to Lynn, though, at first, she pretended to ignore him. He said nothing, just sat there as someone might when all the tables are filled and it is necessary to share space with a stranger. His presence made her uncomfortable, yet there was nothing specific that alerted her.
A short while later, Mac, the man who had been Lynn's handler in Mexico, came out of the shadows and stopped at the table. He was younger than the old man. His clothes were military casual, the type of garments that veteran students who have military experience might recognise, but not think unusual. He leaned over Lynn and kissed her gently on the forehead, spoke quietly to her, and then said 'Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.' Those were the code words that would start the cover programme of which she was still part. The words led to her being switched from the control of the old man, a researcher she now believes may have been part of Dr Ewen Cameron's staff before coming to the United States for the latter part of his career, to the younger man.
The change is like a re-enlistment in an army she never willingly joined. In a very real way, she is a career soldier who has never been paid, never allowed to retire and never given a chance to lead a life free from the fear of what she might do without conscious awareness.”
― Lynn Hersha, Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed to Kill for Their Country

“Your limitations are largely programming instilled by others that you choose to believe.”
― Gary Hopkins

“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?”
― Alan J. Perlis

“Building software implies various stages of planning, preparation and execution that vary in kind and degree depending on what's being built. [...]
Building a four-foot tower requires a steady hand, a level surface, and 10 undamaged beer cans. Building a tower 100 times that size doesn't merely require 100 times as many beer cans.”
― Steve McConnell, Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

“How can we make sure we wind up behind the right door when the going gets tough? The answer is: craftsmanship.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

“Kids who are good at traditional school—repeating rote concepts and facts on a test—can fall apart in a situation where that isn’t enough. Programming rewards the experimental, curious mind.”
― Ketil Moland Olsen

“Learning a language is not interesting than knowing how it works.”
― Ritesh Shrivastav

“I’ve learned over the past few years that comments should be considered smells.”
― Ron Lisle

“Being able to extend jQuery, whether by adding your own functions, CSS selectors or full- blown plugins, makes you a much stronger and smarter developer.”
― Robert Duchnik, jQuery Plugin Development In 30 Minutes

“As soon as he said it was okay to do engineering, that really freed me up. My psychological block was really that I didn't want to start a company. Because I was just afraid. In business and politics, I wasn't going to be a real strong participant. I wasn't going to tell other people how to do things. I wasn't going to run things ever in my life. I was a non-political person and I was a very non-forceful person. It dated back to a lot of things that happened during the Vietnam War. But I just couldn't run a company.”
― Steve Wozniak