HN

Comments (59)

• Menu

  isityettime
  > A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing.This one stood out to me. I'd say it's a favorite.These others are interesting in the age of LLMs:> 93. When someone says "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I wish done," give him a lollipop.> 114. Within a computer natural language is unnatural.> 115. Most people find the concept of programming obvious, but the doing impossible.> 27. Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.> 113. The only constructive theory connecting neuroscience and psychology will arise from the study of software.This one remains worth thinking about in terms of the consequences and costs of automation and computerization, LLM-powered or not:> 99. In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
• rezmason
  These are fun to say out loud in the voice of the Kai Lentit's Perl programmerhttps://youtu.be/0jK0ytvjv-E?t=43https://youtu.be/xE9W9Ghe4Jk?t=238
• Menu

  LelouBil
  > A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.Great definition actually
• Menu

  chriscbr
  Random self plug - I liked a lot of these quotes from Alan Perlis, so around a year ago I bought the domain https://perl.is/ to display them.
• Menu

  shawn_w
  I read this as "Perlism" at first and got excited to see perl on HN.
• Menu

  dtagames
  And in #27 we find the rationale behind all LLM coding agents, "Once you understand how a program works, get someone else to write it for you."
• Menu

  jancsika
  > 2. Functions delay binding; data structures induce binding. Moral: Structure data late in the programming process.A good way to enforce this is to encrypt the data at the beginning of the process.Then any function that returns structured data is clearly foolish and can be marked for removal.
• Menu

  rpdillon
  My favorite has always been:> 31. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.Kind of close to "build the first one to throw away".
• gwern
  Full original version, without omissions or typos: https://gwern.net/doc/cs/algorithm/1982-perlis.pdf
• Menu

  ripe
  > 102. One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.Seems to be a strike against LLM-based programming systems like Claude.
• sriram_malhar
  This feels so quaint today. How I'd like to be back in that timeframe.
• benj111
  >18. A program without a loop and a structured variable isn't worth writingI kind of disagree. It may not be a very big or interesting program but a hell of a lot of useful stuff is done on spread sheets without any loops or anything but numbers.
• Menu

  DonHopkins
  >1. One man's constant is another man's variable.Did you ever have one of those days when variables didn't and constants weren't?
• jdw64
  In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble.
• LelouBil
  > Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.Pretty relevant with LLMs and coding agents.
• tenderfault
  76! Let’s do this!
• anon
  undefined