Quotes about programming languages

What scientists, writers, and programmers think about popular programming languages.

All languages

“There are two approaches to programming. The first is to make the program so simple that there are obviously no errors in it. And the second is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious mistakes in it. ”
Tony Hoare. Professor, was engaged in the implementation of Algol 60, is now a researcher at Microsoft Research.

Algol 60 (later affecting C)

“I could not resist the temptation to add a null pointer to the language, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to countless errors, vulnerabilities and failures that have caused damage, probably billions of dollars, over the past forty years. ”
Tony Hoare.

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Basic

“It is almost impossible to teach students who have dealt with BASIC with a good programming style; as programmers, they are mentally crippled without hope of recovery. ”
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, "The Threats to Computing Science".

C

“C programming is like a quick dance on a floor that has just been waxed, among people with sharp razors in their hands.”
Waldi Ravens. Programmer.

“From my selfish point of view, most C programs should be leveled at a level of six feet below ground.”
Blair P. Houghton. Programmer.

“Moving from programming in Pascal to programming in C is how to learn to write in Morse code.”
JP Candusso. Programmer.

“One of the main reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire was that, since their arithmetic didn’t have zero, they couldn’t report the successful completion of their C. programs.”
Robert Firth. The author of books on programming.

“Writing in C or C ++ is like working with a chainsaw without any protection.”
Bob Gray. Writer.

“It's half past five in the morning ... Do you know where your stack pointer is now?”
Anonymous

C ++

“With C, you can easily shoot yourself in the leg. Using C ++ makes it more difficult, but if it happens, you will tear off your entire leg. ”
Bjarne Stroustrup. C ++ Creator

“The evolution of programming languages: Fortran is an untyped language. C is a weakly typed language. Ada is a strongly typed language. C ++ is a highly publicized language. ”
Ron Sercely. Programmer.

“I came up with the term object-oriented, but I didn’t mean C ++ at all.”
Alan Kay. Smalltalk Creator

"The latest innovations in C ++ were created to correct previous innovations."
David Jameson. Writer

“Really, after fifty years of research in the field of programming languages, we have come to C ++?”
Richard A. O'Keefe. Scientist.

“Have you ever read comp.lang.c ++? This is the best place to see how many C ++ users are looking for a better language. ”
R. William Beckwith.

“C ++ deserves a place in the history of programming languages, just as Caligula deserves a place in the history of the Roman Empire.”
Robert Firth.

“Java is C ++, from which all pistols, knives and clubs were removed.”
James Gosling, one of the creators of Java.

“C ++ is a terrible language. Even if C did not give any advantages other than scaring programmers in C ++, this would already be a sufficient argument in favor of C. "
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux.

COBOL

“Using Kobol cripples the mind; his teaching should amount to a criminal offense. "
EW Dijkstra.

Fortran

“Fortran is not a flower, but a weed - it abruptly and suddenly grows on every computer.”
Alan J. Perlis. Professor (Yale University)

“Fortran is defective from birth and is already over 20 years old, today it is hopelessly inferior for any computer program you can think of: it’s too hard, too risky and too expensive to use.”
EW Dijkstra.

“Fortran was popular for the same reason that running competitions with tied legs are popular.”
Ken Thompson. One of the creators of Unix, Plan 9 and the Go programming language.

Java

“If garbage collection really worked in Java, most programs would delete themselves when they first started.”
Robert Sewell. Programmer.

Lisp

“Lisp is not a language, but a building material.”
Alan Kay.

Perl

"Perl is the only language in which programs look the same before and after RSA encryption."
Keith Bostic. Programmer, creator of Sleepycat, BSD contributor.

Php

“PHP is a small evil created by incompetent amateurs, and Perl is a huge and cunning evil created by experienced and perverted professionals.”
Jon Ribbens. Programmer.

Bash and other shells

“It's easier to port a shell than a shell script.”
Larry Wall. Perl Creator.

And finally ...

"There are only two types of programming languages: those that people swear at all times, and those that nobody uses."
Bjarne Stroustrup.