Authors:

Fernando J. Corbato Quotes

My definition of elegance is the achievement of a given functionality with a minimum of mechanism and a maximum of clarity.

My definition of elegance is the achievement of a given functionality with a minimum of mechanism and a maximum of clarity.

"Computers, Ethics & Social Values". Book edited by Deborah G. Johnson and Helen Fay Nissenbaum, 1995.

Because one has to be an optimist to begin an ambitious project, it is not surprising that underestimation of completion time is the norm.

"On Building Systems That Will Fail". Communications of the ACM, Volume 34 Issue 9, dl.acm.org. September 1991.

The use of the high level language made each programmer a factor of 5 to 10 more productive in a coding sense and more concerned with the semantics than the syntax of modules.

"A Managerial View of the Multics System Development". Talk at the Conference on Research Directions in Software Technology, Providence, Rhode Island, www.multicians.org. October 1977.

Design bugs are often subtle and occur by evolution with early assumptions being forgotten as new features or uses are added to systems.

"On Building Systems That Will Fail". Communications of the ACM, Volume 34 Issue 9, dl.acm.org. September 1991.