“Make sure your code ‘does nothing’ gracefully.”
“A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do.”
“Let the machine do the dirty work. ”
“Choose a data representation that makes the program simple.”
“Let the data structure the program.”
“Where there are two bugs, there is likely to be a third.”
“Test input for validity and plausibility.”
“Don’t patch bad code – rewrite it.”
“Don’t stop with your first draft.”
“Make it right before you make it fast. Make it clear before you make it faster. Keep it right when you make it faster.”
“Make your programs read from top to bottom.”
“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
“Only release when the goal is reached, not the deadline.”
“If your Boss can’t say No to His Boss, Change the Job.”
“Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.”
“There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence. ”
“The art of programming lies in that nether region between the hopeful wishes of an elegant architecture and the hard grindstone of technical details.”
“Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. ”
“Any simple problem can be made insoluble if enough meetings are held to discuss it. ”
“Real programmers don’t comment their code. It was hard to write, it should be hard to understand. ”
“The software isn’t finished until the last user is dead.”
“Programming languages should be designed not by piling feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make additional features appear necessary. ”
“Humans are the best value in computers — where else can you get a non-linear computer weighing only about 160lbs, having a billion binary decision elements, that can be mass-produced by unskilled labour?”
“Hofstadter’s Law – It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter’s Law into account .”
“Fast, good, cheap: pick any two.”
“First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.”
“The sooner we start coding fewer frameworks and more programs the sooner we’ll become better programmers. ”
“No matter how far down the wrong road you’ve gone, turn back.”
“Design first, then code.”
“Discipline is the best tool.”
“Practice is the best of all instructors. ”
“All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. ”
“f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmmng.”
“It is faster to make a four-inch mirror then a six-inch mirror than to make a six-inch mirror. ”
“If you can’t beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing. ”
“With enough practice, any interface is intuitive. ”
“Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning.”
“It may be the early bird that gets the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese. ”
“If we can’t fix it, it ain’t broke. ”
“Why do we never have time to do it right, but always have time to do it over?”
“Remember, only two industries refer to their customers as users.”
“There are only 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary, and those who don’t.”
“But it’s working as coded!”
“The job’s not over until the paperwork’s done.”
“We don’t really understand it, so we’ll give it to the programmers. ”
“Projects without clear goals will not achieve their goals clearly. ”
“You are making progress if each mistake is a new one. ”
“Real programmers don’t work from 9 to 5. If any real programmers are around at 9am it’s because they were up all night.”
“Programmers are tools for converting caffeine into code.”
“And the users exclaimed with a laugh and a taunt: It’s just what we asked for but not what we want.”
“A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. ”
“The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up. ”
“Requirements are like water. They’re easier to build on when they’re frozen.”
“Fine, Java MIGHT be a good example of what a programming language should be like. But Java applications are good examples of what applications SHOULDN’T be like.”
“If you have a problem, and you think the solution is using regular expressions, then you have two problems.”
“What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.
“Plan to throw one away; you will anyhow. ”
“Keep it simple; as simple as possible, but no simpler. ”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. ”
“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”
“Great hackers can load a large amount of context into their head, so that when they look at a line of code, they see not just that line but the whole program around it.”
“The key to being a good hacker may be to work on what you like.”
“The key to efficient development is to “make interesting new mistakes”.”
“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.”
“A bad website is like a grumpy salesperson.”
“People will realize that software is not a product; you use it to build a product.”
“The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it.”