Wirth Quotes & Sayings

Software development is technical activity conducted by human beings. — Niklaus Wirth

Prolific programmers contribute to certain disaster. — Niklaus Wirth

Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer. — Niklaus Wirth

Good engineering is characterized by gradual, stepwise refinement of products that yields increased performance under given constraints and with given resources. — Niklaus Wirth

My being a teacher had a decisive influence on making language and systems as simple as possible so that in my teaching, I could concentrate on the essential issues of programming rather than on details of language and notation. — Niklaus Wirth

Indians are in denial mode and wake up only when foreigners treasure India. They don't seem to know the value and,therefore, don't take pride in their tradition, unlike Westerners who take a lot of pride in theirs, even if there is little to be proud of — Maria Wirth

The idea that one might derive satisfaction from his or her successful work, because that work is ingenious, beautiful, or just pleasing, has become ridiculed. — Niklaus Wirth

Experience shows that the success of a programming course critically depends on the choice of these examples. — Niklaus Wirth

The most celebrated American author of the twentieth century, Bellow objected during the first part of his career to being designated a "Jewish writer, " but it was he who demonstrated how a Jewish voice could speak for an integrated America. With Bellow, Jewishness moved in from the immigrant margins to become a new form of American regionalism. Yet he did not have to write about Jews in order to write as a Jew. Bellow's curious mingling of laughter and trembling is particularly manifest in his novel Henderson the Rain King, that follows an archetypal Protestant American into mythic Africa. Bellow not only influenced and paved the way for other American Jewish writers like Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, but naturalized the immigrant voice: the American novel came to seem freshly authentic when it spoke in the voice of one of its discernible minorities. — Hana Wirth-Nesher

It is evidently necessary to generate and test candidates for solutions in some systematic manner. — Niklaus Wirth

I have never designed a language for its own sake. — Niklaus Wirth

Many people tend to look at programming styles and languages like religions: if you belong to one, you cannot belong to others. But this analogy is another fallacy. — Niklaus Wirth

Clearly, programming courses should teach methods of design and construction, and the selected examples should be such that a gradual development can be nicely demonstrated. — Niklaus Wirth

Energy Policy will be and should be driven by environmental policy in the future. — Tim Wirth

We've got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy. — Tim Wirth

Through your support of UN peacekeeping, you can help to make this tantalizing word-"peace"-a reality for all the world's citizens. Together, we can spread the message that UN peacekeeping is essential. Without it, the world would be a much less stable, and more violent, place. — Tim Wirth

Programs should be written and polished until they acquire publication quality. — Niklaus Wirth

Once I was standing in line to buy a telephone and Senator Wirth was in line with me. The next day the New York Times reported that we'd both purchased telephones and what price we'd paid! — Harold H. Greene

Our ultimate goal is extensible programming (EP). By this, we mean the construction of hierarchies of modules, each module adding new functionality to the system. — Niklaus Wirth

Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. (Or, sometimes known by] Grove [the head of Intel] giveth and Gates [the head of Microsoft] taketh away.) — Niklaus Wirth

Time pressure gradually corrupts an engineer's standard of quality and perfection. It has a detrimental effect on people as well as products — Niklaus Wirth

My duty as a teacher is to train, educate future programmers. — Niklaus Wirth

Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is baffling
the incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration. — Niklaus Wirth

Whereas Europeans generally pronounce my name the right way ('Ni-klows Wirt'), Americans invariably mangle it into 'Nick-les Worth'. This is to say that Europeans call me by name, but Americans call me by value. — Niklaus Wirth

Yet, I am convinced that there is a need for high quality software, and the time will come when it will be recognized that it is worth investing effort in its development and in using a careful, structured approach based on safe, structured languages. — Niklaus Wirth

A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do. — Niklaus Wirth

We should have at least one new idea in the job training part of the platform. Otherwise, why don't we just take the 1964 platform and adopt it? — Tim Wirth

Nevertheless, I consider OOP as an aspect of programming in the large; that is, as an aspect that logically follows programming in the small and requires sound knowledge of procedural programming. — Niklaus Wirth

Indeed, the woes of Software Engineering are not due to lack of tools, or proper management, but largely due to lack of sufficient technical competence. — Niklaus Wirth

Having a hearing is educational. Having a hearing with television cameras is useful. Having a hearing with two rows of television cameras is Heaven. — Tim Wirth

The belief that complex systems require armies of designers and programmers is wrong. A system that is not understood in its entirety, or at least to a significant degree of detail by a single individual, should probably not be built. — Niklaus Wirth

Go To statement considered harmful. — Niklaus Wirth

Complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which often do require complex mechanisms. However, this should not diminish our desire for elegant solutions, which convince by their clarity and effectiveness. Simple, elegant solutions are more effective, but they are harder to find than complex ones, and they require more time, which we too often believe to be unaffordable — Niklaus Wirth

In the practical world of computing, it is rather uncommon that a program, once it performs correctly and satisfactorily, remains unchanged forever. — Niklaus Wirth

No INSECURITY makes us sociopathic; too much makes us paranoid; but a little keeps us humble and introspective-a good thing... — J.R. Wirth

C++ is an insult to the human brain — Niklaus Wirth

Program construction consists of a sequence of refinement steps. — Niklaus Wirth

The possible solutions to a given problem emerge as the leaves of a tree, each node representing a point of deliberation and decision. — Niklaus Wirth

Professors typically spend their time in meetings about planning, policy, proposals, fund-raising, consulting, interviewing, traveling, and so forth, but spend relatively little time at their drawing boards. As a result, they lose touch with the substance of their rapidly developing subject. They lose the ability to design; they lose sight of what is essential; and they resign themselves to teach academically challenging puzzles. — Niklaus Wirth

Energy is essential for development, and sustainable energy is essential for sustainable development. — Tim Wirth

During the process of stepwise refinement, a notation which is natural to the problem in hand should be used as long as possible. — Niklaus Wirth

Usually its users discover sooner or later that their program does not deliver all the desired results, or worse, that the results requested were not the ones really needed. — Niklaus Wirth

A primary cause of complexity is that software vendors uncritically adopt almost any feature that users want. — Niklaus Wirth

But active programming consists of the design of new programs, rather than contemplation of old programs. — Niklaus Wirth

Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster. — Niklaus Wirth

But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensible luxury, but a simple necessity. — Niklaus Wirth

We called the Weather Bureau and found out what historically was the hottest day of the summer ... So we scheduled the hearing that day, and bingo, it was the hottest day of record in Washington, or close to it ... we went in the night before and opened all the windows ... so that the air conditioning wasn't working inside the room. — Tim Wirth

Getting lost in the 'big picture' often prevents us from cherishing the 'small moments' that make it all worthwhile... — J.R. Wirth