Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
The best book on programming for the layman is 'Alice in Wonderland'; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
It goes against the grain of modern education to teach students to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline, organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self critical.
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.
A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing.
A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
One man's constant is another man's variable.
