In this respect a program is like a poem: you cannot write a poem without writing it. Yet people talk about programming as if it were a production process and measure "programmer productivity" in terms of "number of lines of code produced". In so doing they book that number on the wrong side of the ledger: we should always refer to "the number of lines of code spent".
Edsger DijkstraThe use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.
Edsger DijkstraThe purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.
Edsger DijkstraProduction speed is severely slowed down if one works with half-time people who have other obligations as well. This is at least a factor of four; probably it is worse.
Edsger Dijkstra