Short Citations
C++
There are only two things wrong with C++, the initial concept and the implementation (Bertrand Meyer)
Comments
Comments are not evil by themselves, but are sometimes used as a deodorant to cover bad code. Often we can remove the comments after doing some refactorings, because they are not needed anymore. The code should be self-explaining. However, there are cases when we still should use comments: If we are unsure on what to do or to explain why we did something. (Roberto A. Riquelme Torres)
Documentation
Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing. (Dick Brandon)
Experience
- Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first, and the lesson afterward.
- The secret of success? Good decisions. How do you make good decisions? Experience. How do you get experience? Bad Decisions.
Future
- The future belongs to those who prepare for it today (Malcom X)
- The best way to predict the future is to invent it (Alan Kay)
History
Those who don't know history are doomed to reapeat it.
Innovation
The first step in innovation is to know that a thing can be created. After that, the rest is a matter of detail. (DUNE : House of Corrine - Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson)
Invention
Most inventions doesn't start with "Eureka" but with "that sounds funny" (Albert Einstein)
Java
Java, the best argument for Smalltalk since C++.
Knowledge
To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves (Motto of Edge Foundation, Inc)
Optimistic
Shoot the moom, even if you miss it, you will land among the stars.
Object-Oriented Programming
Inheritance was invented at 2 AM between January 5th and 6th, 1967 (Krysten Nygaard co-inventor of the first OO Languages Simula 1 on 1965, and Simula 67)
Operating Systems
An operating system is a collection of things that don't fit into a language. There shouldn't be one (Daniel H H Ingalls in "Design Principals Behind Smalltalk", August 1981 issue of Byte Magazine, pages 286 to 298)
Pessimistic
The light at the end of the tunnel is usally a "No Exit" sign.
PhD
[PhD is] any thing you can get three people to sign (Ivan Sutherlan in the Early History of Smalltalk by Alan Kay)
Problem
- Any problem in computer science can be solved with another level of indirection. But that usually will create another problem. (David Wheeler)
Research
- If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? (Albert Einstein)
- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. (Lawrence Peter Berra)
Science
One of the great commandments of science is: "Mistrust arguments from authority"
Simplicity
- Software people tend to favor the joy of complexity, yet we should strive for the joy of simplicity. (Alan Kay)
Smalltalk
- Smalltalk is dangerous. It is a drug. My advice to you would be don't try it; it could ruin your life. Once you take the time to learn it (to REALLY learn it) you will see that there is nothing out there (yet) to touch it. Of course, like all drugs, how dangerous it is depends on your character. It may be that once you've got to this stage you'll find it difficult (if not impossible) to "go back" to other languages and, if you are forced to, you might become an embittered character constantly muttering ascerbic comments under your breath. Who knows, you may even have to quit the software industry altogether because nothing else lives up to your new expectations. (Andy Bower, C++ expert)
- Smalltalk is by far the best programming language available. The Family of C programming languages has been evolving toward Smalltalk-like functionality for the past 25 years. Java is the most Smalltalk-like of the C family, removing the direct pointer manipulation of C++ and adding fully integrated garbage collection. Smalltalk provides a simpler syntax, consistency between class and instance behavior, much higher productivity and easier maintainability. This makes it the logical next choice for current Java developers and the logical choice for businesses interested in reducing their total cost of ownership for software systems. Smalltalk is well supported by many vendors including Cincom and IBM. (Allen B. Davis)
- Dynamic typing allows the programmer to do the right thing without trying to convince the compiler that it's the right thing. (David Buck)
- I believe that many of the systems we build today in Java would be better built in Smalltalk and Gemstone (Martin Fowler, JAOO 2003)
- Dave Ungar at OOPSLA 2003 replied to the following question: "Why people use C++ and Java [instead of Smalltalk]" by: "Why people smoke [although they know its bad for their health]?"
- Or let's say you would like to have lunch with a friend. In an assembler or obfuscated C world, you would reach inside your friend's mind and manipulate values and pointers until you made lunch appear attractive. You might even tickle the stomach to get the appetite going.
But Smalltalk imposes much more civilized manners. In the same way that your friend is not a struct{...}, objects are not allowed to arbitrarily cross distinctions and mess with internal details. Instead, objects must communicate by means of messages. (Andrés Valloud, A Mentoring Course on Smalltalk, page 6).
Strategy
- Brillant tactics can not save bad strategy.
Success
- A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between he does what he wants to do. (Bob Dylan)
- The secret of success? Good decisions.
How do you make good decisions? Experience.
How do you get experience? Bad decisions.
Time
- Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working. (Anonymous)
Link to this Page
- Miscellany last edited on 13 June 2008 at 2:51:37 pm by gate2.ensm-douai.fr