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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