For your amusement

Steve Cordle (scordle@erols.com)
Thu, 16 Oct 1997 09:14:43 -0400


Computer programming quotes from 
"The Wizardry Compiled" by Rick Cook

You can always tell a really good idea by the enemies it makes.
     ---programmers' axiom

Everything always takes twice as long and costs four times as
much as you planned.  
     ---programmers' axiom

It's never the technical stuff that gets you in trouble.  It's
the personalities and the politics.  
     ---programmer's saying

Those who can't do, teach.    ---article of faith among students
And vice-versa                ---programmers' addendum 

Living with a programmer is easy.  All you need is the patience
of a saint.
     ---programmers' wives' saying

Applications software is a race between software engineers, who
strive to produce idiot-proof programs, and the Universe which
strives to produce bigger idiots.  ---software engineers' saying
So far the Universe is winning.    
     ---applications programmers' saying

The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer
with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a program patch, and
a user with an idea.     ---computer saying

You can't do just one thing.
     ---Campbell's Law of everything.

Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate. 
     ---Murphy's law #1024
...and sometimes the real trick is telling the difference.
     ---Murphy's law #1024a

Always secure your files.  You never know who's lurking about.
     ---programmer's saying

If you eat a live toad first thing in the morning, nothing worse
will happen all day long.     ---California saying
To you or the toad.           ---Niven's restatement of above
...well, most of the time, anyway.  ---programmer's caveat

You never find out the whole story until after you've signed the
contract. ---programmer's saying

Putting twice as many programmers on a project that is late will
make it twice as late.
     ---Brooks' law of programming projects

Sleep?  Isn't that a completely inadequate substitution for
caffeine?  ---programmers' saying

At some point in the project you're going to have to break down
and finally define the problem.  ---programmers' saying

Customer support is an art, not a science.  ---marketing saying
So are most other forms of torture.     ---programmers' response

Programming is like pinball.  The reward for doing it well is the
opportunity to do it again.  ---programmers' saying