Larry Wall Quotes

Learn when and how to use different data structures and their algorithms in your own code. This is harder as a student, as the problem assignments you'll work through just won't impart this knowledge. That's fine.

For infrastructure technology, C will be hard to displace.

No one wants one language. There are applications when it's appropriate to write something in C rather than in Java. If you want to write something where performance is much more important than extensibility, then you might want to choose C rather than Java.

Programmers can be lazy.

At least for the people who send me mail about a new language that they're designing, the general advice is: do it to learn about how to write a compiler.

So Chuck and I looked at that and we hacked on em for a while, and eventually we ripped the stuff out of em and put some of it into what was then called en, which was really ed with some em features.

No matter what, the way to learn to program is to write code and rewrite it and see it used and rewrite again. Reading other people's code is invaluable as well.

I'm a great coder. But I am not pushing that so much anymore because there are thousands of great coders.

Don't hurry your code. Make sure it works well and is well designed. Don't worry about timing.

I don't like programming. It's tedious.

C is a razor-sharp tool, with which one can create an elegant and efficient program or a bloody mess.

No one-liner can ever be optimal.

In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.

The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.

Developers, developers, developers, developers.

I hope to see Ruby help every programmer in the world to be productive, and to enjoy programming, and to be happy. That is the primary purpose of Ruby language.

Programming is all about numbers.

Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)

Developing a compiler was a logical move; but in matters like this, you don't run against logic - you run against people who can't change their minds.

We flew down weekly to meet with IBM, but they thought the way to measure software was the amount of code we wrote, when really the better the software, the fewer lines of code.

Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%.

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%

Only in high school when I began programming computers, did I become interested in tech and start-ups, which led me to attend Stanford and major in Computer Science.

On a purely technical side, I'm really very happy with how Linux gets used in a very wide set of different areas. It's important for development.