For the human makers of things, the incompletenesses and inconsistencies of our ideas become clear only during implementation. Thus it is that writing, experimentation, working out are essential disci...
Conceptual integrity does require that a system reflect a single philosophy and that the specification as seen by the user flow from a few minds. Because of the real division of labor into architectur...
The true implementers are intimately involved in the design process; their broad experience provides the balance for a designer’s limited implementation examples. (In
The job done least well by project managers is to utilize the technical genius who is not strong on management talent.
The challenge and the mission are to find real solutions to real problems on actual schedules with available resources.
On balance I think the microfiche was a very happy mechanism, and I would recommend it over a paper workbook for very large projects.
Nothing even convincing, much less exciting, has yet emerged from such efforts. I am persuaded that nothing will.
Everything has been composed, just not yet written down. LETTER TO LEOPOLD MOZART [1780]
Especially noteworthy is his comment that new people added late in a development project must be team players willing to pitch in and work within the process, and not attempt to alter or improve the p...
Because ease of use is the purpose, this ratio of function to conceptual complexity is the ultimate test of system design. Neither function alone nor simplicity alone defines a good design. This point...
And so from a statistical mechanical model, Belady and Lehman arrive for programming-systems at a more general conclusion supported by the experience of all the earth. Things are always at their best...
Almost invariably I have made wrong assumptions about how they would use the new tool.
When a child has learned this architecture, he can tell time as easily from a wristwatch as from a church tower.
This great church is an incomparable work of art. There is neither aridity nor confusion in the tenets it sets forth. . . . It is the zenith of a style, the work of artists who had understood and assi...
The programmer at wit's end for lack of space can often do best by disentangling himself from his code, rearing back, and contemplating his data. Representation is the essence of programming.
The opportunity to be creative and inventive in implementation is not significantly diminished by working within a given external specification, and the order of creativity may even be enhanced by tha...
Sometimes the problem is to discover what the problem is.
Program maintenance involves no cleaning, lubrication, or repair of deterioration. It consists chiefly of changes that repair design defects. Much more often than with hardware, these changes include...
In collaboration with Sharif Razzaque There are many ways of making a fool of yourself with a digital computer, and to have one more can hardly make any difference. SIR MAURICE WILKES [1959], THE EDSA...
Good cooking takes time. If you are made to wait, it is to serve you better, and to please you.