“People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines. There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.”

As Bill Gates once warned, computers have indeed become our silicon masters, pervading nearly every aspect of our modern lives. As a result, some of the greatest minds of our time have pondered the significance of computers and software on the human condition. Following are 101 great quotes about computers, with an emphasis on programming, since after all this is a software development site.

Computers

1. “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”
(Pablo Picasso)

2. “Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.”
(Sam Ewing)

3. “They have computers, and they may have other weapons of mass destruction.”
(Janet Reno)

4. “That’s what’s cool about working with computers. They don’t argue, they remember everything, and they don’t drink all your beer.”
(Paul Leary)

5. “If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.”
(Robert X. Cringely)

Computer Intelligence

1. “Computers are getting smarter all the time. Scientists tell us that soon they will be able to talk to us. (And by ‘they’, I mean ‘computers’. I doubt scientists will ever be able to talk to us.)”
(Dave Barry)

2. “I’ve noticed lately that the paranoid fear of computers becoming intelligent and taking over the world has almost entirely disappeared from the common culture. Near as I can tell, this coincides with the release of MS-DOS.”
(Larry DeLuca)

3. “The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)

4. “It’s ridiculous to live 100 years and only be able to remember 30 million bytes. You know, less than a compact disc. The human condition is really becoming more obsolete every minute.”
(Marvin Minsky)

Trust

1. “The city’s central computer told you? R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!”
(C3PO)

2. “Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.”
(Steve Wozniak)

Hardware

1. “Hardware: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.”
(Jeff Pesis)

Software

1. “Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.”
(Alan Kay)

2. “I’ve finally learned what ‘upward compatible’ means. It means we get to keep all our old mistakes.”
(Dennie van Tassel)

Operating Systems

1. “There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence.”
(Jeremy S. Anderson)

2. “19 Jan 2038 at 3:14:07 AM”
(End of the word according to Unix–2^32 seconds after January 1, 1970)

3. “Every operating system out there is about equal… We all suck.”
(Microsoft senior vice president Brian Valentine describing the state of the art in OS security, 2003)

4. “Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP, which according to everybody is the ‘most reliable Windows ever.‘ To me, this is like saying that asparagus is ‘the most articulate vegetable ever.‘ “
(Dave Barry)

lnternet

1. “The Internet? Is that thing still around?”
(Homer Simpson)

2. “The Web is like a dominatrix. Everywhere I turn, I see little buttons ordering me to Submit.”
(Nytwind)

3. “Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is nothing like Shakespeare.”
(Blair Houghton)

Software Industry

1. “The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry.”
(Henry Petroski)

2. “True innovation often comes from the small startup who is lean enough to launch a market but lacks the heft to own it.”
(Timm Martin)

3. “It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.”
(Alan Cooper)

4. “It is not about bits, bytes and protocols, but profits, losses and margins.”
(Lou Gerstner)

5. “We are Microsoft. Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated.”
(Bumper sticker)

Software Demos

1. “No matter how slick the demo is in rehearsal, when you do it in front of a live audience, the probability of a flawless presentation is inversely proportional to the number of people watching, raised to the power of the amount of money involved.”
(Mark Gibbs)

Software Patents

1. “The bulk of all patents are crap. Spending time reading them is stupid. It’s up to the patent owner to do so, and to enforce them.”
(Linus Torvalds)

Complexity

1. “Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.”
(Brian Kernigan)

2. “Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.”
(Ray Ozzie)

3. “There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”
(C.A.R. Hoare)

4. “The function of good software is to make the complex appear to be simple.”
(Grady Booch)

Ease of Use

1. “Just remember: you’re not a ‘dummy,’ no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who–though technically expert–couldn’t design hardware and software that’s usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it.”
(Walter Mossberg)

2. “Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more ‘user-friendly’… Their best approach so far has been to take all the old brochures and stamp the words ‘user-friendly’ on the cover.”
(Bill Gates)

3. “There’s an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.”
(Bjarne Stroustrup)

Users

1. “Any fool can use a computer. Many do.”
(Ted Nelson)

2. “There are only two industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’.”
(Edward Tufte)

Programmers

1. “Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.”
(Rich Cook)

2. “Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.”
(Larry Wall)

3. “The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late.”
(Seymour Cray)

4. “That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.”
(Larry Niven)

5. “For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading edge, could be so useless. And then it occurred to me that a computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match.”
(Bill Bryson)

6. “Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter.”
(Eric Raymond)

7. “A programmer is a person who passes as an exacting expert on the basis of being able to turn out, after innumerable punching, an infinite series of incomprehensive answers calculated with micrometric precisions from vague assumptions based on debatable figures taken from inconclusive documents and carried out on instruments of problematical accuracy by persons of dubious reliability and questionable mentality for the avowed purpose of annoying and confounding a hopelessly defenseless department that was unfortunate enough to ask for the information in the first place.”
(IEEE Grid newsmagazine)

8. “A hacker on a roll may be able to produce–in a period of a few months–something that a small development group (say, 7-8 people) would have a hard time getting together over a year. IBM used to report that certain programmers might be as much as 100 times as productive as other workers, or more.”
(Peter Seebach)

9. “The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability.”
(Randall E. Stross)

10. “A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.”
(Bill Gates)

Programming

1. “Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.”
(Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering)

2. “Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”
(Bill Gates)

3. “Writing code has a place in the human hierarchy worth somewhere above grave robbing and beneath managing.”
(Gerald Weinberg)

4. “First learn computer science and all the theory. Next develop a programming style. Then forget all that and just hack.”
(George Carrette)

5. “First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.”
(John Johnson)

6. “Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.”
(Kent Beck)

7. “To iterate is human, to recurse divine.”
(L. Peter Deutsch)

8. “The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.”
(Anonymous)

9. “Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.”
(Stan Kelly-Bootle)

Programming Languages

1. “There are only two kinds of programming languages: those people always bitch about and those nobody uses.”
(Bjarne Stroustrup)

2. “PHP is a minor evil perpetrated and created by incompetent amateurs, whereas Perl is a great and insidious evil perpetrated by skilled but perverted professionals.”
(Jon Ribbens)

3. “The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should therefore be regarded as a criminal offense.”
(E.W. Dijkstra)

4. “It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC. As potential programmers, they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.”
(E. W. Dijkstra)

5. “I think Microsoft named .Net so it wouldn’t show up in a Unix directory listing.”
(Oktal)

6. “There is no programming language–no matter how structured–that will prevent programmers from making bad programs.”
(Larry Flon)

7. “Computer language design is just like a stroll in the park. Jurassic Park, that is.”
(Larry Wall)

C/C++

1. “Fifty years of programming language research, and we end up with C++?”
(Richard A. O’Keefe)

2. “Writing in C or C++ is like running a chain saw with all the safety guards removed.”
(Bob Gray)

3. “In C++ it’s harder to shoot yourself in the foot, but when you do, you blow off your whole leg.”
(Bjarne Stroustrup)

4. “C++ : Where friends have access to your private members.”
(Gavin Russell Baker)

5. “One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that–lacking zero–they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.”
(Robert Firth)

Java

1. “Java is, in many ways, C++–.”
(Michael Feldman)

2. “Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OSes is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.”
(Alanna)

3. “Fine, Java MIGHT be a good example of what a programming language should be like. But Java applications are good examples of what applications SHOULDN’T be like.”
(pixadel)

4. “If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution.”
(Robert Sewell)

Open Source

1. “Software is like sex: It’s better when it’s free.”
(Linus Torvalds)

2. “The only people who have anything to fear from free software are those whose products are worth even less.”
(David Emery)

Code

1. “Good code is its own best documentation.”
(Steve McConnell)

2. “Any code of your own that you haven’t looked at for six or more months might as well have been written by someone else.”
(Eagleson’s Law)

3. “The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”
(Tom Cargill)

Software Development

1. “Good programmers use their brains, but good guidelines save us having to think out every case.”
(Francis Glassborow)

2. “In software, we rarely have meaningful requirements. Even if we do, the only measure of success that matters is whether our solution solves the customer’s shifting idea of what their problem is.”
(Jeff Atwood)

3. “Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an engineering discipline.”
(Bill Clinton)

4. “You can’t have great software without a great team, and most software teams behave like dysfunctional families.”
(Jim McCarthy)

Debugging

1. “As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.”
(Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949)

2. “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are–by definition–not smart enough to debug it.”
(Brian Kernighan)

3. “If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)

Quality

1. “I don’t care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!”
(Vidiu Platon)

2. “Programming is like sex: one mistake and you’re providing support for a lifetime.”
(Michael Sinz)

3. “There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.”
(Alan J. Perlis)

4. “You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time.”
(Bertrand Meyer)

5. “If McDonalds were run like a software company, one out of every hundred Big Macs would give you food poisoning, and the response would be, ‘We’re sorry, here’s a coupon for two more.’ “
(Mark Minasi)

6. “Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.”
(Martin Golding)

7. “To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.”
(Paul Ehrlich)

8. “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history–with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”
(Mitch Radcliffe)

Predictions

1. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
(Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899)

2. “I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”
(Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948)

3. “It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.”
(John Von Neumann, circa 1949)

4. “But what is it good for?”
(Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968)

5. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
(Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977)

6. “640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
(Bill Gates, 1981)

7. “Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM, which is more than any application will ever need.”
(Microsoft, on the development of Windows NT, 1992)

8. “We will never become a truly paper-less society until the Palm Pilot folks come out with WipeMe 1.0.”
(Andy Pierson)

9. “If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.”
(Frank Lloyd Wright)

“人們總是害怕改變。電被發(fā)明出來的時(shí)候他們害怕電，是不是？他們害怕煤，害怕蒸汽機(jī)車。無知無所不在，并導(dǎo)致恐懼。但隨著時(shí)間推移，人們終究會(huì)接受最新的科技。”

正如比爾蓋茨曾經(jīng)警告過一樣，計(jì)算機(jī)已經(jīng)真正成為我們的最新科技，幾乎遍布我們?nèi)粘Ｉ�活的每一方面。所以，我們這個(gè)時(shí)代的某些最偉大的頭腦開始思索起計(jì)算機(jī)和軟件對(duì)于人類的重要性來了。以下就是101條有關(guān)計(jì)算機(jī)的偉大名言，并且，既然我們這個(gè)網(wǎng)站是一個(gè)軟件開發(fā)網(wǎng)站，我們尤其關(guān)注編程方面的。

計(jì)算機(jī)

1、“計(jì)算機(jī)沒什么用。他們只會(huì)告訴你答案。”
(巴勃羅·畢加索，畫家)

2、“計(jì)算機(jī)就跟比基尼一樣，省去了人們許多的胡思亂想。”
(薩姆·尤因，作家)

3、“他們擁有計(jì)算機(jī)，他們也還可能擁有其他的大規(guī)模殺傷性武器。”
(珍內(nèi)特·雷諾，美國前女司法部長)

4、“跟計(jì)算機(jī)工作酷就酷在這里，它們不會(huì)生氣，能記住所有東西，還有，它們不會(huì)喝光你的啤酒。”
(保羅·利里，吉他手)

5、“如果汽車能趕上計(jì)算機(jī)的發(fā)展周期的話，一輛今天的勞斯萊斯僅值100美元，每加侖要跑100萬英里，每年還得爆炸一次，把里面的人殺個(gè)精光。”

(Robert X. Cringely，技術(shù)作家)

計(jì)算機(jī)智能

6、“計(jì)算機(jī)總是越來越智能的。科學(xué)家告訴我們說不久它們就能跟我們對(duì)話了。（這里的“它們”，我指的是“計(jì)算機(jī)”。我懷疑科學(xué)家永遠(yuǎn)都不能跟我們對(duì)話。）”
(Dave Barry，幽默作家)

7、“我最近注意到，在共同文化中，那種對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)變得智能化并最終掌控世界的妄想恐懼癥幾乎徹底消失了。據(jù)我所知，這跟MS-DOS的發(fā)布基本是同步的。”
(Larry DeLuca)

8、“計(jì)算機(jī)會(huì)不會(huì)思考這個(gè)問題就像問潛水艇會(huì)不會(huì)游泳一樣。”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra，圖靈獎(jiǎng)獲得者)

9、“活了一百年卻只能記住30M字節(jié)是荒謬的。你知道，這比一張壓縮盤還要少。人類境況正在變得日趨退化。”
(Marvin Minsky，人工智能研究的奠基人)

信任

10、“這座城市的中央計(jì)算機(jī)告訴你的？R2D2，你不該相信一臺(tái)陌生的計(jì)算機(jī)！”
(C3PO，星球大戰(zhàn)中的翻譯機(jī)器人)

11、“永遠(yuǎn)不要相信一臺(tái)不能扔掉一扇窗戶*的計(jì)算機(jī)”
(斯蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克，蘋果聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人)
*譯者：暗指微軟的wINDOWS操作系統(tǒng)
硬件

12、“硬件:計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)中可被踢的部分。”
(Jeff Pesis)

軟件

13、“今天大部分的軟件都很像上百萬塊磚堆疊在一起組成的埃及金字塔，缺乏結(jié)構(gòu)完整性，只能靠強(qiáng)力和成千上萬的奴隸完成。”
(阿倫·凱，圖靈獎(jiǎng)獲得者，面向?qū)ο髣?chuàng)始人)

14、“我終于明白‘向上兼容性’是怎么回事了。這是指我們得保留所有原有錯(cuò)誤。”
(Dennie van Tassel)

操作系統(tǒng)

15、“有兩樣重要產(chǎn)品出自伯克利：LSD和BSD*。我們不相信這是個(gè)巧合。”

(Jeremy S. Anderson)

*譯者：LSD是一種藥力至強(qiáng)的迷幻劑，BSD-BSD（Berkeley Software Distribution，伯克利軟件套件）是Unix的衍生系統(tǒng)

16、“2038年1月19日，凌晨3點(diǎn)14分07秒”
(UNIX中的世界末日*–1970年1月1號(hào)之后的2^32秒)

*譯者：word跟world同音，UNIX用有符號(hào)整形數(shù)（WORD）表示時(shí)間，所以最多只能計(jì)時(shí)2^31秒，原文的2^32應(yīng)為錯(cuò)誤。

17、“每個(gè)操作系統(tǒng)都差不多… 我們都一樣的爛。”
(微軟的高級(jí)副總裁布萊恩·瓦倫蒂尼這樣描述操作系統(tǒng)的安全狀況，2003)

18、“微軟有出了個(gè)新版本，Windows XP,據(jù)大家說是‘有史以來最穩(wěn)定的Windows‘， 對(duì)我而言, 這就好像是在說蘆筍是‘有史以來發(fā)音最清脆的蔬菜一樣‘ “

(Dave Barry)

互聯(lián)網(wǎng)

19、“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)？那個(gè)東西還在嗎？”
(Homer Simpson)

20、“網(wǎng)絡(luò)就像是個(gè)母夜叉。我每轉(zhuǎn)到一處都會(huì)看見小個(gè)的按鈕命令我提交*。”
(Nytwind)

*譯者注：Submit：提交，另一層意思是要求屈服

21、“想想看吧，已經(jīng)有一百萬只猴子坐在一百萬臺(tái)打字機(jī)旁，可Usenet就是比不上莎士比亞。”
(Blair Houghton)

軟件產(chǎn)業(yè)

22、“計(jì)算機(jī)軟件產(chǎn)業(yè)最為驚人的成就，是其持續(xù)不斷地放棄硬件產(chǎn)業(yè)的驚人成果和穩(wěn)定性。”

(Henry Petroski)

23、“真正的創(chuàng)新經(jīng)常來自于那些貼近市場、但無力擁有市場的的小型初創(chuàng)公司。”

(Timm Martin)

24、“人們常說，偉大的科學(xué)學(xué)科就像是站在其它巨人肩膀上的巨人。人們也說過，軟件產(chǎn)業(yè)正如站在其他侏儒腳上的侏儒。”
(Alan Cooper，交互設(shè)計(jì)之父)

25、“這無關(guān)比特、字節(jié)和協(xié)議，而關(guān)乎利潤和損益。”
(郭士納，IBM前CEO)

26、“我們是微軟。反抗是徒勞的。你會(huì)被同化的。”
(保險(xiǎn)杠貼紙)

軟件演示

27、“不管演示在彩排的時(shí)候有多好，一旦在觀眾面前展示時(shí)，演示不出錯(cuò)的幾率與觀眾人數(shù)成反比，與投入的金錢總額成正比。”
(Mark Gibbs)

軟件專利

28、“專利大多數(shù)都是垃圾。浪費(fèi)時(shí)間去閱讀這些專利是愚蠢的。只有專利持有人才會(huì)這么干，還得強(qiáng)迫自己才會(huì)看。”

(Linus Torvalds，LINUX創(chuàng)始人)

復(fù)雜性

29、“控制復(fù)雜性是計(jì)算機(jī)編程的本質(zhì)。”
(Brian Kernigan)

30、“復(fù)雜性殺死一切。它把程序員的生活給搞砸了，它令產(chǎn)品難以規(guī)劃、創(chuàng)建和測試，帶來了安全挑戰(zhàn)，并導(dǎo)致最終用戶和管理員沮喪不已。”
(Ray Ozzie)

31、“進(jìn)行軟件設(shè)計(jì)有兩種方式。一種是讓它盡量簡單，讓人看不出明顯的不足。另一種是弄得盡量復(fù)雜，讓人看不出明顯的缺陷。”
(C.A.R. Hoare)

32、“好的軟件的作用是讓復(fù)雜的東西看起來簡單。”
(Grady Booch，UML創(chuàng)始人之一)

易用性

33、“不管那些計(jì)算機(jī)書籍如何宣稱，只需記住，你并非‘傀儡’。真正的傀儡是那些無法設(shè)計(jì)出易于使用的硬件和軟件的那些人，盡管他們是技術(shù)專家，因?yàn)檫@是普通消費(fèi)者賴以生活的東西。”

(Walter Mossberg，科技專欄記者)

34、“軟件供應(yīng)商在努力嘗試讓他們的軟件更‘易于操作’… 迄今為止，他們最好的辦法就是翻出所有的老手冊，然后在封面蓋上‘易于操作’這幾個(gè)字。”

(比爾·蓋茨)

35、“有個(gè)老套的故事說有人希望他的計(jì)算機(jī)能像他的電話機(jī)一樣好用。他的愿望實(shí)現(xiàn)了，因?yàn)槲乙呀?jīng)不知道該如何使用自己的電話了。”
(Bjarne Stroustrup，C++之父)

用戶

36、“任何一個(gè)傻瓜都會(huì)用電腦。很多都會(huì)。”
(Ted Nelson)

37、“只有兩個(gè)行業(yè)把客戶稱為‘用戶’*。”

(Edward Tufte，信息設(shè)計(jì)大師)
*譯者注：一個(gè)是計(jì)算機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)，另一個(gè)是毒品交易，computer design and drug dealing
程序員

38、“程序員在跟宇宙賽跑，他們在努力開發(fā)出更大更好的傻瓜程序，而宇宙則努力培養(yǎng)出更大更好的白癡。到目前為止，宇宙領(lǐng)先。”
(Rich Cook)

39、“你們當(dāng)中很多人都知道程序員的美德。當(dāng)然啦，有三種：那就是懶惰、急躁以及傲慢。”
(Larry Wall，Perl發(fā)明者)

40、“程序員的問題是你無法預(yù)料他在做什么，直到為時(shí)已晚。”
(Seymour Cray，超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)之父)

41、“那就是這些自認(rèn)為痛恨計(jì)算機(jī)的人的真實(shí)面目。他們實(shí)際上真正痛恨的是糟糕的程序員。”
(拉瑞·尼文，科幻作家)

42、“很長時(shí)間以來我一直困惑不已，為什么一些又貴又先進(jìn)的東西會(huì)一點(diǎn)用都沒有。直到我突然想起，計(jì)算機(jī)不就是一臺(tái)愚蠢之至卻擁有難以置信的做聰明事能力的機(jī)器嘛，而程序員不就是聰明絕頂卻擁有難以置信的干蠢事的能力的人嘛。一句話，他們簡直就是天生絕配。”
(比爾·布萊森，旅游文學(xué)作家)

43、“不像學(xué)學(xué)涂涂畫畫也能讓某人成為專家級(jí)畫家，計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)教育不會(huì)讓任何人成為一名編程大師。”

(埃里克·雷蒙，開源運(yùn)動(dòng)領(lǐng)袖)

44、“一個(gè)程序員是經(jīng)歷以下事情后仍能證明自己是嚴(yán)格的專家的人：他可以歷經(jīng)數(shù)不清的捶打，可取材于無關(guān)緊要的文檔，用上面的爭議數(shù)據(jù)作出模糊假設(shè)，并以此計(jì)算出測微精度的無數(shù)片面理解的答案,并由一個(gè)不可靠、腦袋充滿質(zhì)疑、公開宣稱要讓一個(gè)倒霉透頂、沒有指望、毫無防備,要求第一時(shí)間獲得信息的部門狼狽不堪、令人生厭的人使用一臺(tái)準(zhǔn)確度有問題的儀器去實(shí)施。”

(IEEE網(wǎng)格新聞雜志)

45、“運(yùn)氣好的黑客能用幾個(gè)月的時(shí)間 - 生產(chǎn)出一個(gè)小規(guī)模的開發(fā)團(tuán)體（比如說，7-8人）歷盡艱辛一起工作了一年多才能做出來的東西。IBM經(jīng)常報(bào)告說某些程序員的生產(chǎn)力要比其它工人高百倍，甚至更多。”
(Peter Seebach，黑客)

46、“最好的程序員跟好的程序員相比可不止好那么一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)。這種好不是一個(gè)數(shù)量級(jí)的，取決于標(biāo)準(zhǔn)怎么定：概念創(chuàng)造性、速度、設(shè)計(jì)的獨(dú)創(chuàng)性或者解決問題的能力。”
(蘭德爾·E·斯特勞斯，科技作家)

47、“偉大的車工值得給他幾倍于普通車工的薪水，但一個(gè)偉大的軟件代碼作家，其價(jià)值則要等同于一個(gè)普通的軟件寫手的價(jià)格的1萬倍。”
(比爾·蓋茨)

編程

48、“就算它工作不正常也別擔(dān)心。如果一切正常，你早該失業(yè)了。”
(Mosher的軟件工程定律)

49、“靠代碼行數(shù)來衡量開發(fā)進(jìn)程就好比用重量來衡量飛機(jī)制造的進(jìn)度。”
(比爾·蓋茨)

50、“寫代碼的社會(huì)地位比盜墓的高，比管理的低。”
(杰拉爾·德溫伯格，軟件與系統(tǒng)思想家)

51、“首先學(xué)習(xí)計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)及理論。接著形成自己編程的風(fēng)格。然后把這一切都忘掉，盡管改程序就是了。”
(George Carrette，杰出軟件工程師,開源推廣者)

52、“先解決問題再寫代碼。”
(John Johnson)

53、“樂觀主義是編程行業(yè)的職業(yè)��；用戶反饋則是治療方法。”
(Kent Beck)

54、“迭代者為人，遞歸者為神。”
(L. Peter Deutsch)

55、“布爾值最好的一點(diǎn)是，就算你錯(cuò)了，也頂多錯(cuò)了一位而已。”
(無名氏)

56、“數(shù)組的下標(biāo)是從0開始好還是從1開始好呢？我的0.5的折衷方案，以我之見，沒有經(jīng)過適當(dāng)考慮就被否決掉了。”

(Stan Kelly-Bootle)

編程語言

57、“只有兩種編程語言：一種是天天挨罵的，另一種是沒人用的。”
(Bjarne Stroustrup，C++之父)

58、“PHP是不合格的業(yè)余愛好者創(chuàng)建的，他們犯做了個(gè)小惡；Perl是嫻熟而墮落的專家創(chuàng)建的，他們犯了陰險(xiǎn)狡詐的大惡。”

(Jon Ribbens)

59、“COBOL的使用摧殘大腦；其教育應(yīng)被視為刑事犯罪。”
(E.W. Dijkstra)

60、“把良好的編程風(fēng)格教給那些之前曾經(jīng)接觸過BASIC的學(xué)生幾乎是不可能的。作為可能的程序員，他們已精神殘廢，無重塑的可能了。”

(E. W. Dijkstra)

61、“我想微軟之所以把它叫做.Net，是因?yàn)檫@樣它就不會(huì)在Unix的目錄里顯示出來了。”
(Oktal)

62、“沒有一種編程語言能阻止程序員寫出糟糕的程序來，不管這種語言結(jié)構(gòu)有多良好。”
(Larry Flon)

63、“計(jì)算機(jī)語言設(shè)計(jì)猶如在公園里漫步。我是說侏羅紀(jì)公園。”
(Larry Wall)

C/C++

64、“搞了50年的編程語言的研究，我們難道就以C++告終啦？”
(Richard A. O’Keefe)

65、“寫C或者C++就像是在用一把卸掉所有安全防護(hù)裝置的鏈鋸。”
(Bob Gray)

66、“在C++里你想搬起石頭砸自己的腳更為困難了，不過一旦你真的做了，整條腿都要報(bào)銷。”
(Bjarne Stroustrup)

67、“C++ : 友人可造訪你的私有成員之地也。”
(Gavin Russell Baker)

譯者：Friends：C++的友元，是一種定義在類外部的普通函數(shù)，但它需要在類體內(nèi)進(jìn)行說明，為了與該類的成員函數(shù)加以區(qū)別，在說明時(shí)前面加以關(guān)鍵字friend。友元不是成員函數(shù)，但是它可以訪問類中的私有成員。友元的作用在于提高程序的運(yùn)行效率，但是，它破壞了類的封裝性和隱藏性，使得非成員函數(shù)可以訪問類的私有成員。

68、“羅馬帝國滅亡的其中一個(gè)主要原因是他們沒有0 - 這樣他們就沒法給自己的C程序指明成功退出的路徑了。”
(Robert Firth)

Java

69、“Java從許多方面來說就是C++–。”
(Michael Feldman)

70、“說Java好就好在運(yùn)行于多個(gè)操作系統(tǒng)之上，就好像說肛交好就好在不管男女都行。”

(Alanna)

71、“好吧，Java也許是編程語言的好榜樣。但Java應(yīng)用則是應(yīng)用程序的壞榜樣。”
(pixadel)

72、“要是Java真的有垃圾回收的話，大部分程序在執(zhí)行的時(shí)候就會(huì)把自己干掉了。”
(Robert Sewell)

開源

73、“軟件就像性事：免費(fèi)/自由更好。”
(Linus Torvalds)

74、“唯一對(duì)免費(fèi)軟件感到害怕的人，是自己的產(chǎn)品還要不值錢的人。”
(David Emery)

代碼

75、“好代碼本身就是最好的文檔。”
(Steve McConnell)

76、“你自己的代碼如果超過6個(gè)月不看，再看的時(shí)候也一樣像是別人寫的。”
(伊格爾森定律)

77、“前面90%的代碼要占用開發(fā)時(shí)間的前90%。剩下的10%的代碼要占用開發(fā)時(shí)間的另一90%。”

(Tom Cargill)

軟件開發(fā)

78、“好的程序員會(huì)用腦，但是好的向?qū)Ь任覀冇跇訕佣家�想到�?rdquo;
(Francis Glassborow)

79、“在軟件里面，我們鮮有有意義的需求。就算有，衡量成功的唯一尺度也取決于我們的解決方案是否解決了客戶對(duì)問題是什么的觀念的轉(zhuǎn)變。”
(Jeff Atwood)

80、“想想我們計(jì)算機(jī)程序的糟糕現(xiàn)狀吧，很顯然軟件開發(fā)仍是黑箱藝術(shù)，還不能稱之為工程學(xué)科。”
(Bill Clinton，前美國總統(tǒng))

81、“沒有偉大的團(tuán)隊(duì)就沒有偉大的軟件，可大部分的軟件團(tuán)隊(duì)舉止就像是支離破碎的家庭。”
(吉姆·麥卡錫，微軟VC++總監(jiān))

調(diào)試

82、“一旦我們開始編程，就會(huì)驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)讓程序正常沒想象中那么簡單。調(diào)試不可避免。那一刻我認(rèn)記憶猶新，當(dāng)時(shí)我就意識(shí)到，從今往后我生活的大部分時(shí)間都要花在尋找自己程序的錯(cuò)誤上面了。”

(莫里斯·威爾克斯 調(diào)試探索, 1949)

83、“調(diào)試難度本來就是寫代碼的兩倍。因此，如果你寫代碼的時(shí)候聰明用盡，根據(jù)定義，你就沒有能耐去調(diào)試它了。”
(Brian Kernighan)

84、“如果調(diào)試是除蟲的過程，那么編程就一定是把臭蟲放進(jìn)來的過程。”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)

質(zhì)量

85、“我才不管它能不能在你的機(jī)器上運(yùn)行呢！我們又沒裝到你的機(jī)器上！”

(Vidiu Platon，羅馬尼亞的微軟最佳學(xué)生合作伙伴MSP)

86、“編程就像性一樣：一時(shí)犯錯(cuò)，終生維護(hù)。”
(Michael Sinz)

87、“有兩種寫出無錯(cuò)程序的辦法；只有第三種有用。”
(Alan J. Perlis)

88、“軟件質(zhì)量與指針?biāo)惴ú豢杉娴谩?rdquo;
(Bertrand Meyer)

89、“如果麥當(dāng)勞像軟件公司那樣運(yùn)作的話，每一百個(gè)巨無霸就會(huì)有一個(gè)令你食物中毒，而他們的回應(yīng)是，‘真對(duì)不起，這是一張額外附送兩個(gè)的贈(zèng)券。’ “
(Mark Minasi)

90、“永遠(yuǎn)要這樣寫代碼，好像最終維護(hù)你代碼的人是個(gè)狂暴的、知道你住在哪里的精神病患者。”

(Martin Golding)

91、“是人都會(huì)犯錯(cuò)，不過要想把事情徹底搞砸還得請電腦出馬。”
(Paul Ehrlich)

92、“計(jì)算機(jī)比人類歷史上的任何發(fā)明都更快速地導(dǎo)致你犯更多的錯(cuò)誤–可能除了手槍和龍舌蘭酒是例外。”

(Mitch Radcliffe)

預(yù)測

93、“能發(fā)明的東西都發(fā)明出來了。”
(查爾斯·杜埃爾, 美國專利局局長，1899年)

94、“我認(rèn)為全球市場約需5臺(tái)計(jì)算機(jī)。”
(托馬斯·沃森, IBM董事長, 約1948年)

95、“看上去我們已經(jīng)到達(dá)了利用計(jì)算機(jī)技術(shù)可能獲得的極限了，盡管下這樣的結(jié)論得小心，因?yàn)椴怀鑫迥赀@聽起來就會(huì)相當(dāng)愚蠢。”

(約翰·馮·諾伊曼,約1949年)

96、“但這又有什么好處呢？”
(IBM先進(jìn)計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)部的工程師對(duì)微芯片的評(píng)論, 1968年)

97、“我們沒有理由讓每一個(gè)人在家都擁有一臺(tái)電腦。”
(肯·奧爾森,數(shù)據(jù)設(shè)備公司（DEC）總裁，1977年)

98、“640K對(duì)每一個(gè)人來說都已足夠。”
(比爾·蓋茨,1981年)

99、“Windows NT的RAM尋址空間可達(dá)2G，這比任何應(yīng)用程序所需都要多。”

(微軟, 談及Windows NT的開發(fā)時(shí)所言, 1992年)

100、“我們永遠(yuǎn)也無法真正成為無紙化社會(huì)，直到掌上電腦一族發(fā)布擦我1.0*（WipeMe 1.0）為止。”

(安迪•皮爾遜，商界領(lǐng)袖)

*譯者注：意思是說難道你大便不用紙嗎？

101、“長此以往，除了按鍵的手指外，人類的肢體將全部退化。”
(弗蘭克•勞埃德•賴特，建筑師)