21 Mar
2018
21 Mar
'18
3:17 p.m.
From: Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com>
Going forward, I wish that people tried to be simple
as they tackle the
more complicated problems we have.
I have a couple of relevant quotations on my 'Some Computer-Related Lines'
page:
"Deliberate complexity is the mark of an amateur. Elegant simplicity is the
mark of a master."
-- Unknown, quoted by Robert A. Crawford
"Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses
remove it."
-- Alan Perlis
"The most reliable components are the ones you leave out."
-- Gordon Bell
(For software, the latter needs to be read as 'The most bug-free lines of
codqe are the ones you leave out', of course.)
I remember watching the people building the LISP machine, and thinking 'Wow,
that system is complex'. I eventually decided the problem was that they were
_too_ smart. They could understand, and retain in their minds, all that
complexity.
Noel