Every new idea is an impossibility until it is born.

Every new idea is an impossibility until it is born.

The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.

The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.

Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.

Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.

Sped up my XT; ran it on 220v! Works greO?_|.

Sped up my XT; ran it on 220v! Works greO?_|.

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It read more

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.

Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity?

Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity?

It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart.

It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart.

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no read more

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

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.