Epigrams in Programming

  1. The use of a program to prove the 4-color theorem will not change mathematics – it merely demonstrates that the theorem, a challenge for a century, is probably not important to mathematics.

  2. The most important computer is the one that rages in our skulls and ever seeks that satisfactory external emulator. The standarization of real computers would be a disaster – and so it probably won’t happen.

  3. Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded middle.

  4. Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words – but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.

  5. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.