Niklaus Wirth Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

Clearly, programming courses should teach methods of design and construction, and the selected examples should be such that a gradual development can be nicely demonstrated.

Niklaus Wirth
But active programming consists of the design of new programs, rather than contemplation of old programs.

Niklaus Wirth
In the practical world of computing, it is rather uncommon that a program, once it performs correctly and satisfactorily, remains unchanged forever.

Niklaus Wirth
During the process of stepwise refinement, a notation which is natural to the problem in hand should be used as long as possible.

Niklaus Wirth
As a matter of fact, the adaptability of a program to changes in its objectives (often called maintainability) and to changes in its environment (nowadays called portability) can be measured primarily in terms of the degree to which it is neatly structured.

Niklaus Wirth
Experience shows that the success of a programming course critically depends on the choice of these examples.

Niklaus Wirth
... we do not consider it as good engineering practice to consume a resource lavishly just because it happens to be cheap.

Niklaus Wirth
In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.

Niklaus Wirth
Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer.

Niklaus Wirth
Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.

Niklaus Wirth