Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. read more

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.

Encryption...is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running read more

Encryption...is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government... It's hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty.

FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in read more

FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.
PL/I --'the fatal disease'-- belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.

Spending an evening on the World Wide Web is much like sitting down to a dinner of Cheetos, two hours read more

Spending an evening on the World Wide Web is much like sitting down to a dinner of Cheetos, two hours later your fingers are yellow and you're no longer hungry, but you haven't been nourished.

The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.

The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.

You know you've achieved perfection in design,
Not when you have nothing more to add,
But when you have read more

You know you've achieved perfection in design,
Not when you have nothing more to add,
But when you have nothing more to take away.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

Hardware: the parts of a computer that can be kicked.

Hardware: the parts of a computer that can be kicked.