Learning Programming Quotes & Sayings

A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming. — Alan Perlis

Kids don't watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused. If you are in the business of educational television, this is a critical difference. It means if you want to know whether-and what-kids are learning from a TV show, all you have to do is to notice what they are watching. And if you want to know what kids aren't learning, all you have to do is notice what they aren't watching. Preschoolers are so sophisticated in their viewing behavior that you can determine the stickiness of children's programming by simple observation. — Malcolm Gladwell

We don't have much time, so we don't teach them; we acquaint them with things that they can learn. — Charles E. Leiserson

Programming allows you to think about thinking, and while debugging you learn learning. — Nicholas Negroponte

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation. — Andy Hertzfeld

There is one very good reason to learn programming, but it has nothing to do with preparing for high-tech careers or with making sure one is computer literate in order to avoid being cynically manipulated by the computers of the future. The real value of learning to program can only be understood if we look at learning to program as an exercise of the intellect, as a kind of modern-day Latin that we learn to sharpen our minds. — Roger Schank

Learning a language is not interesting than knowing how it works. — Ritesh Shrivastav

Programming languages, like pizzas, come in only too sizes; too big and too small. — Richard E. Pattis

If we can dispel the delusion that learning about computers should be an activity of fiddling with array indexes and worrying whether X is an integer or a real number, we can begin to focus on programming as a source of ideas. — Hal Abelson

[A]s a species, we are very poor at programming. Our brains are built to understand other humans, not computers. We're terrible at forcing our minds into the precise modes of thought needed to interact with a computer, and we consistently make errors when we try. That's why computer science and programming degrees take such time and dedication to acquire: we are literally learning how to speak to an alien mind, of a kind that has not existed on Earth until very recently. — Stuart Armstrong

Object-oriented programming as it emerged in Simula 67 allows software structure to be based on real-world structures, and gives programmers a powerful way to simplify the design and construction of complex programs. — David Gelernter

Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity ... The geniuses of the computer field, on the the other hand, are the people with the keenest aesthetic senses, the ones who are capable of creating beauty. Beauty is decisive at every level: the most important interfaces, the most important programming languages, the winning algorithms are the beautiful ones. — David Gelernter

To Learn is to create. Learning- whether it is programming, mathematics, art, music, poetry, biology, or chemistry- is all about breaking down walls and freeing the one thing that kept us alive: knowledge.

Knowledge expands freedom in all its forms. Knowledge breaks down walls. It liberates the oppressed. We are committed to knowledge. Knowledge as a hammer against classism, against sexism, against racism, against gender discrimination, against slavery, against bigotry, against war, against hatred. If there is darkness in the world, we will light it up. — Leopoldo Gout

Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end. — Khalil Gibran

Learning. It's really the primary reason behind everything I do. Programming, entrepreneuring, writing. — Derek Sivers

Any noun can be verbed. — Alan Perlis

Good programmers know what's beautiful and bad ones don't. — David Gelernter

Programming is an explanatory activity. — Roman Harper

The most common anxiety I hear about learning to program is that people think it requires a lot of math. Actually, most programming doesn't require math beyond basic arithmetic. In fact, being good at programming isn't that different from being good at solving Sudoku puzzles. To solve a Sudoku puzzle, the numbers 1 through 9 must be filled in for each row, each column, and each 3x3 interior square of the full 9x9 board. You find a solution by applying deduction and logic from the starting numbers. For — Albert Sweigart

I think that great programming is not all that dissimilar to great art. Once you start thinking in concepts of programming it makes you a better person ... as does learning a foreign language, as does learning math, as does learning how to read. — Jack Dorsey

A programming language is like a natural, human language in that it favors certain methaphors, images, and ways of thinking. — Seymour Papert

What is the central core of the subject [computer science]? What is it that distinguishes it from the separate subjects with which it is related? What is the linking thread which gathers these disparate branches into a single discipline. My answer to these questions is simple -it is the art of programming a computer. It is the art of designing efficient and elegant methods of getting a computer to solve problems, theoretical or practical, small or large, simple or complex. It is the art of translating this design into an effective and accurate computer program. — Tony Hoare

In the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning. — Maimonides

A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing. — Alan Perlis

We often treat children as if they're not very competent to do anything on their own. So we make them stop learning in a natural way - by exploring. Logo [the computer programming language ] allows them to find their way around the computer, as they would find their way around the house, uncontaminated by the bureaucracies of schools. — Seymour Papert

The discipline of programming is most like sorcery. Both use precise language to instruct inanimate objects to do our bidding. Small mistakes in programs or spells can lead to completely unforseen behavior: e.g., see the story, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Neither study is easy: " ... her [Galinda's] early appetite for sorcery had waned once she'd heard what a grind it was to learn spells and, worse, to understand them." from the book "Wicked" by G. Maguire. — Richard E. Pattis

I was eventually persuaded of the need to design programming notations so as to maximize the number of errors which cannot be made, or if made, can be reliably detected at compile time. — Tony Hoare

To treat programming scientifically, it must be possible to specify the required properties of programs precisely. Formality is certainly not an end in itself. The importance of formal specifications must ultimately rest in their utility -in whether or not they are used to improve the quality of software or to reduce the cost of producing and maintaining software. — Jim Horning

Learning the art of programming, like most other disciplines, consists of first learning the rules and then learning when to break them. — Joshua Bloch

I never really had the fun teens of exploring the world because I was sitting at home, learning programming. — Markus Persson

The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself. — Amari Cooper

Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build. — Fred Brooks

Successful software always gets changed. — Fred Brooks

So, what does it mean for teaching and learning programming when the solution to every beginner problem is available on the Internet? — Cay S. Horstmann

Most arguments are about programming; most resolutions are reached through a process of unlearning then relearning. — Oli Anderson

I have never learned anything except from people younger than myself. — Oscar Wilde

Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes it takes. — Hayley Mills

Learning to code makes kids feel empowered, creative, and confident. If we want our young women to retain these traits into adulthood, a great option is to expose them to computer programming in their youth. — Susan Wojcicki