Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
Hal Abelson
Programs must be written for ...
Quotes from the same author
We have also obtained a glimpse of another crucial idea about languages and program design. This is the approach of statified design, the notion that a complex system should be structured as a sequence of levels that are described using a sequence of languages. Each level is constructed by combining parts that are regarded as primitive at that level, and the parts constructed at each level are used as primitives at the next level. The language used at each level of a stratified design has primitives, means of combination, and means of abstraction appropriate to that level of detail.
Hal Abelson
Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement.
Hal Abelson
A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as a framework within which we organize our ideas about processes.
Hal Abelson
