Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
I find that writing unit tests actually increases my programming speed.
You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It’s logic-based creativity.
To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
Code never lies, comments sometimes do.
An API that isn’t comprehensible isn’t usable.
Software is eating the world.
I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.
I don’t like the feeling, but I’ve got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.
I’ve known people who have not mastered their tools who are good programmers, but not a tool master who remained a mediocre programmer.
Make it work, make it right, make it fast.
Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.
Data dominates. If you’ve chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.
Coding is today’s language of creativity. All our children deserve a chance to become creators instead of consumers of computer science.
You’re either the one that creates the automation or you’re getting automated.
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
Good code is its own best documentation.
It’s better to wait for a productive programmer to become available than it is to wait for the first available programmer to become productive.
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.
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.