Niklaus Wirth Quotes

The critical thing in developing software is not the program, it's the design. It is translating understanding of user needs into something that can be realized as a computer program.

There are two methods in software design. One is to make the program so simple, there are obviously no errors. The other is to make it so complicated, there are no obvious errors.

If 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself: 'Dijkstra would not have liked this', well that would be enough immortality for me.

Computing should be taught as a rigorous - but fun - discipline covering topics like programming, database structures, and algorithms. That doesn't have to be boring.

I designed and developed an unbelievable number of applications early in my life.

Building technical systems involves a lot of hard work and specialized knowledge: languages and protocols, coding and debugging, testing and refactoring.

In my daily work, I work on very large, complex, distributed systems built out of many Python modules and packages. The focus is very similar to what you find, for example, in Java and, in general, in systems programming languages.

Programming is usually taught by examples.

I started programming Apples in seventh grade.

I didn't do programming language stuff in college at all.

Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch type has to do with writing poetry

I am a programmer.

I'm really good at making software for publishing.

Certainly not every good program is object-oriented, and not every object-oriented program is good.

We decided that the French could never write user-friendly software because they're so rude.

The problem is, in software design, often the consequences of your decisions don't become apparent for years.

Software Engineering might be science; but that's not what I do. I'm a hacker, not an engineer.

Defining OO as based on the use of class hierarchies and virtual functions is also practical in that it provides some guidance as to where OO is likely to be successful.

Good candidates can arrive at the binary search tree as the right path in a few minutes, and then take 10-15 minutes working through the rest of the problem and the other roadblocks I toss out. But occasionally I get a candidate who 'intuitively understands' trees and can visualize the problem I'm presenting.

If you know how to make software, then you can create big things.

Once you get over the hurdle of how to get something on the screen, it's not that difficult to make apps and share them with your friends.

Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.

After graduating in 1973 I went into the programming field.

A good engineering interview will include some set of difficult problems to solve. It might even require that the candidate write a short program. In addition, it will test the candidate's knowledge of the tools she uses in great depth.

Software development is technical activity conducted by human beings.