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desemondo's scratchpad

by desemondo (Hermit)
on Jun 17, 2009 at 22:57 UTC ( [id://772581]=scratchpad: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Some nodes i've found interesting

Variable triggers global destruction hang
Net::Pcap with wireless
Help in Tough Times
ELISHEVA
cabal
The Oldest Plays the Piano
The golf course looks great, my swing feels good, I like my chances (Part V)
Net::Server only sends 128bytes at a time

Theory is when you know something, but it doesn't work.
Practice is when something works, but you don't know why it works.
Programmers combine Theory and Practice: Nothing works and they don't know why.
- Anonymous


1. One man's constant is another man's variable. 2. Functions delay binding; data structures induce binding. Moral: Str +ucture data late in the programming process. 3. Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon. 4. Every program is a part of some other program and rarely fits. 5. If a program manipulates a large amount of data, it does so in a sm +all number of ways. 6. Symmetry is a complexity-reducing concept (co-routines include subr +outines); seek it everywhere. 7. It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correc +t one. 8. A programming language is low level when its programs require atten +tion to the irrelevant. 9. It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure th +an 10 functions on 10 data structures. 10. Get into a rut early: Do the same process the same way. Accumulate + idioms. Standardize. The only difference(!) between Shakespeare and +you was the size of his idiom list - not the size of his vocabulary. 11. If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed s +ome. 12. Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description f +or time. 13. If two people write exactly the same program, each should be put i +nto microcode and then they certainly won't be the same. 14. In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble. 15. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. 16. Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it wa +s written, and another for which it wasn't. 17. If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, w +ake him up. 18. A program without a loop and a structured variable isn't worth wri +ting. 19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming +, is not worth knowing. 20. Wherever there is modularity there is the potential for misunderst +anding: Hiding information implies a need to check communication. 21. Optimization hinders evolution. 22. A good system can't have a weak command language. 23. To understand a program you must become both the machine and the p +rogram. 24. Perhaps if we wrote programs from childhood on, as adults we'd be +able to read them. 25. One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, + movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the st +atic picture, no matter how lovely. 26. There will always be things we wish to say in our programs that in + all known languages can only be said poorly. 27. Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to wri +te it. 28. Around computers it is difficult to find the correct unit of time +to measure progress. Some cathedrals took a century to complete. Can +you imagine the grandeur and scope of a program that would take as lo +ng? 29. For systems, the analogue of a face-lift is to add to the control +graph an edge that creates a cycle, not just an additional node. 30. In programming, everything we do is a special case of something mo +re general -- and often we know it too quickly. 31. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. 32. Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their lo +gic but by the completeness of their case analysis. 33. The eleventh commandment was "Thou Shalt Compute" or "Thou Shalt N +ot Compute" - I forget which. 34. The string is a stark data structure and everywhere it is passed t +here is much duplication of process. It is a perfect vehicle for hidi +ng information. 35. Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to b +e taught not to. So it is with great programmers. 36. The use of a program to prove the 4-color theorem will not change +mathematics - it merely demonstrates that the theorem, a challenge fo +r a century, is probably not important to mathematics. 37. The most important computer is the one that rages in our skulls an +d ever seeks that satisfactory external emulator. The standarization +of real computers would be a disaster - and so it probably won't happ +en. 38. Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded middle. 39. Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to desc +ribe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately desc +ribed with pictures. 40. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third on +e works. 41. Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand +progress. 42. You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude +on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. 43. In software systems, it is often the early bird that makes the wor +m. 44.Sometimes I think the only universal in the computing field is the +fetch-execute cycle. 45. The goal of computation is the emulation of our synthetic abilitie +s, not the understanding of our analytic ones. 46. Like punning, programming is a play on words. 47. As Will Rogers would have said, "There is no such thing as a free +variable." 48. The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderlan +d"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman. + 49. Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden +: Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP m +achine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf. 50. When we understand knowledge-based systems, it will be as before - +- except our fingertips will have been singed. 51. Bringing computers into the home won't change either one, but may +revitalize the corner saloon. 52. Systems have sub-systems and sub-systems have sub- systems and so +on ad infinitum - which is why we're always starting over. 53. So many good ideas are never heard from again once they embark in +a voyage on the semantic gulf. 54. Beware of the Turing tar-pit in which everything is possible but n +othing of interest is easy. 55. A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of n +othing. 56. Software is under a constant tension. Being symbolic it is arbitra +rily perfectible; but also it is arbitrarily changeable. 57. It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than v +ice versa. 58. Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. + Geniuses remove it. 59. In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our +programming languages. 60. In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way. 61. In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reb +orn. 62. In computing, invariants are ephemeral. 63. When we write programs that "learn", it turns out that we do and t +hey don't. 64. Often it is the means that justify the ends: Goals advance techniq +ue and technique survives even when goal structures crumble. 65. Make no mistake about it: Computers process numbers - not symbols. + We measure our understanding (and control) by the extent to which we + can arithmetize an activity. 66. Making something variable is easy. Controlling duration of constan +cy is the trick. 67. Think of all the psychic energy expended in seeking a fundamental +distinction between "algorithm" and "program". 68. If we believe in data structures, we must believe in independent ( +hence simultaneous) processing. For why else would we collect items w +ithin a structure? Why do we tolerate languages that give us the one +without the other? 69. In a 5 year period we get one superb programming language. Only we + can't control when the 5 year period will be. 70. Over the centuries the Indians developed sign language for communi +cating phenomena of interest. Programmers from different tribes (FORT +RAN, LISP, ALGOL, SNOBOL, etc.) could use one that doesn't require th +em to carry a blackboard on their ponies. 71. Documentation is like term insurance: It satisfies because almost +no one who subscribes to it depends on its benefits. 72. An adequate bootstrap is a contradiction in terms. 73. It is not a language's weakness but its strengths that control the + gradient of its change: Alas, a language never escapes its embryonic + sac. 74. Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is + meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to see it as a soap b +ubble? 75. Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperat +e need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves. 76. It is the user who should parameterize procedures, not their creat +ors. 77. The cybernetic exchange between man, computer and algorithm is lik +e a game of musical chairs: The frantic search for balance always lea +ves one of the three standing ill at ease. 78. If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan. 79. A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one beli +eve in God. 80. Prolonged contact with the computer turns mathematicians into cler +ks and vice versa. 81. In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living defi +nition of the word "frustration". 82. We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-las +t theorem. 83. What is the difference between a Turing machine and the modern com +puter? It's the same as that between Hillary's ascent of Everest and +the establishment of a Hilton hotel on its peak. 84. Motto for a research laboratory: What we work on today, others wil +l first think of tomorrow. 85. Though the Chinese should adore APL, it's FORTRAN they put their m +oney on. 86. We kid ourselves if we think that the ratio of procedure to data i +n an active data-base system can be made arbitrarily small or even ke +pt small. 87. We have the mini and the micro computer. In what semantic niche wo +uld the pico computer fall? 88. It is not the computer's fault that Maxwell's equations are not ad +equate to design the electric motor. 89. One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one c +an forget arithmetic. 90. Computation has made the tree flower. 91. The computer reminds one of Lon Chaney -- it is the machine of a t +housand faces. 92. The computer is the ultimate polluter: its feces are indistinguish +- able from the food it produces. 93. When someone says "I want a programming language in which I need o +nly say what I wish done," give him a lollipop. 94. Interfaces keep things tidy, but don't accelerate growth: Function +s do. 95. Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for +them. 96. Computers don't introduce order anywhere as much as they expose op +portunities. 97. When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have com +passion for his graduate students. 98. In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter. 99. In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines +can't. 100. We will never run out of things to program as long as there is a +single program around. 101. Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is al +so easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to impr +ove. 102. One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means +. 103. Purely applicative languages are poorly applicable. 104. The proof of a system's value is its existence. 105. You can't communicate complexity, only an awareness of it. 106. It's difficult to extract sense from strings, but they're the onl +y communication coin we can count on. 107. The debate rages on: is PL/I Bachtrian or Dromedary? 108. Whenever two programmers meet to criticize their programs, both a +re silent. 109. Think of it! With VLSI we can pack 100 ENIACS in 1 sq. cm. 110. Editing is a rewording activity. 111. Why did the Roman Empire collapse? What is Latin for office autom +ation? 112. Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer. 113. The only constructive theory connecting neuroscience and psycholo +gy will arise from the study of software. 114. Within a computer natural language is unnatural. 115. Most people find the concept of programming obvious, but the doin +g impossible. 116. You think you know when you can learn, are more sure when you can + write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can progra +m. 117. It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children t +o program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in + organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be + self-critical? 118. If you can imagine a society in which the computer- robot is the +only menial, you can imagine anything. 119. Programming is an unnatural act. 120. Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting +new machines to behave like old ones.
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