Programming Quotations

scojones

If anyone reads digg you've probably already found this link, but incase you haven't here it is: http://www.eskimo.com/~hottub/software/programming_quotes.html

Some great quotations can be found on the page. Some of my favourites are:

• 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.
• Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
• Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, 'How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?' Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.
• Testing by itself does not improve software quality. Test results are an indicator of quality, but in and of themselves, they don't improve it. Trying to improve software quality by increasing the amount of testing is like trying to lose weight by weighing yourself more often. What you eat before you step onto the scale determines how much you will weigh, and the software development techniques you use determine how many errors testing will find. If you want to lose weight, don't buy a new scale; change your diet. If you want to improve your software, don't test more; develop better.
• It's hard enough to find an error in your code when you're looking for it; it's even harder when you've assumed your code is error-free.

bonkey

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence

Napoleon Bonaparte

Equally important, nut strangely absent from the list :

Never ascribe to malloc() that which is adequately explained by stupidity

Jim Greenly

Saint_Mel

I remember seeing a poster in work once ...

Real programmers dont document code ... If it
was hard to write it should be hard to understand

PhantomBeaker

Profanity - the language that all programmers know best.