Alprc > Alprc's Quotes

“I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.”
― Kent Beck

“Do The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work”
― Kent Beck

“... parts of classic MVC don't really make sense for rich clients these days.”
― Martin Fowler

“Poorly designed code usually takes more code to do the same things, often because the code quite literally does the same thing in several places.”
― Martin Fowler

“I've learned to always avoid saying "always".”
― Martin Fowler

“I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.”
― Martin Fowler, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

“If you can’t understand the spec for a new technology, don’t worry: nobody else will understand it either, and the technology won’t be that important.”
― Joel Spolsky

“Listen to your customers, not your competitors.”
― Joel Spolsky

“Don't be a slave to history. Don't let existing code dictate future code. All code can be replaced if it is no longer appropriate. Even within one program, don't let what you've already done constrain what you do next -- be ready to refactor... This decision may impact the project schedule. The assumption is that the impact will be less than the cost of /not/ making the change.”
― Andrew Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

“The editor will be an extension of your hand; the keys will sing as they slice their way through text and thought.”
― Andrew Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

“The fundamental response to change is not logical, but emotional.”
― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

“Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer; art is everything else.”
― Donald E. Knuth, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Volume 136)

“The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly. A programmer is ideally an essayist who works with traditional aesthetic and literary forms as well as mathematical concepts, to communicate the way that an algorithm works and to convince a reader that the results will be correct.”
― Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Computer Science

“An algorithm must be seen to be believed.”
― Donald Knuth, Leaders in Computing: Changing the digital world

“Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.”
― Donald Knuth

“Premature optimization is the root of all evil.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms

“Programming is the art of doing one thing at a time”
― Michael Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code

“Code without tests is bad code. It doesn't matter how well written it is; it doesn't matter how pretty or object-oriented or well-encapsulated it is. With tests, we can change the behavior of our code quickly and verifiably. Without them, we really don't know if our code is getting better or worse.”
― Michael Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code

“Legacy code. The phrase strikes disgust in the hearts of programmers. It conjures images of slogging through a murky swamp of tangled undergrowth with leaches beneath and stinging flies above. It conjures odors of murk, slime, stagnancy, and offal. Although our first joy of programming may have been intense, the misery of dealing with legacy code is often sufficient to extinguish that flame.”
― Michael Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code

“Encapsulation is important, but the reason why it is important is more important. Encapsulation helps us reason about our code.”
― Michael C. Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code

“Remember, code is your house, and you have to live in it.”
― Michael C. Feathers, Working Effectively with Legacy Code