Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. (Or, sometimes known by] Grove [the head of Intel] giveth and Gates [the head of Microsoft] taketh away.)

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.

Programs should be written and polished until they acquire publication quality.

It is evidently necessary to generate and test candidates for solutions in some systematic manner.

Good engineering is characterized by gradual, stepwise refinement of products that yields increased performance under given constraints and with given resources.

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

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