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My 5 favorite software quotes

Some quotes are so good that they can learn you more things than complete books. For my last post of this year 2009, I’ve chosen to compile 5 of my favorites quotes.

Bjarne Stroustrup

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone

It’s really what happened. Smartphones are easier and easier, but they are still more complicated than phone-only device! We often forget it!

You must connect your iphone to a computer to activate it the first time. Did you say "easy"? Photo credits: Hirotomo

You must connect your iphone to a computer to activate it the first time. Did you say "easy"? Credits: Hirotomo

John F. Woods

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.

If you’re a developer, remember this one! It’s our job to write clean code. “It works!” is not enough, we are writing code for humans.

Imagine that he will maintain your code! Credits: Dark Knight

Imagine that he will maintain your code! Credits: Dark Knight

Cory Doctorow

Engineers are all basically high-functioning autistics who have no idea how normal people do stuff.

It’s from his novel Little Brother and most of the software which are built demonstrate this fact : unusable or useless.

Credits: Wondermark.com

Credits: Wondermark.com

Fred Brooks

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later

This quote is from his book the Mythical Man Month and he states it as the Brooks’s Law. It is the hardest thing to understand for project managers that are not used to software projects.

Credits: stellman-greene.com

Credits: stellman-greene.com

P. J. Plauger

My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what’s really going on to be scared.

I like this definition: the title “expert” is so often overused! I still don’t know when we reach the expert stage…

Credits: doglegs.net

Credits: doglegs.net

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Comments 29

  1. Paul Bourdeaux wrote:

    Funny List, some of my favorites are in there too. However, you miscredited one of the quotes. The quote you attributed to John F. Woods was actually coined by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates in the Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide (2003). It’s original form was “Code as if the next guy to maintain your code is a homicidal maniac who knows where you live.”

    Posted 08 Jan 2010 at 4:45 pm
  2. Dongan wrote:

    Nice Quotes! Funny & thoughtful

    Posted 09 Jan 2010 at 2:58 pm
  3. coder-friendly wrote:

    Hi Paul,
    In fact, people don’t exactly know who wrote this quote the first time. I had made some research and it seems it was John F.Woods in 1991:
    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/876089/who-wrote-this-programing-saying-always-code-as-if-the-guy-who-ends-up-maintain

    Thank you for your comment.

    Coderfriendly

    Posted 09 Jan 2010 at 4:30 pm
  4. coder-friendly wrote:

    Hi Dongan,

    Thank you for your comment. Do you have any one that you want share?

    Corderfriendly

    Posted 09 Jan 2010 at 4:32 pm
  5. ATOzTOA wrote:

    Nice list… nicer illustrations…

    Posted 11 Jan 2010 at 6:22 am

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