“I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don’t think we are. I think we’re responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don’t become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.”

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

http://is.gd/5EA5f (MIT Press)

I love this quote and I am starting to really love this book.  Although it is a mammoth text I find myself finding lots of brilliant quotes and useful experience which as a junior developer I really cant get enough of.

Another great snippet from the Foreword:

“To appreciate programming as an intellectual activity in its own right you must turn to computer programming; you must read and write computer programs — many of them. It doesn’t matter much what the programs are about or what applications they serve. What does matter is how well they perform and how smoothly they fit with other programs in the creation of still greater programs. The programmer must seek both perfection of part and adequacy of collection”

Alan J. Perlis

http://is.gd/5EAlT (MIT Press)

I even thought the first line was brilliant D= !

“This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer.”

Alan J. Perlis

http://is.gd/5EA5f (MIT Press)