AlanKayQuotesAlanKayQuotes
Revolutions come from standing on the shoulders of giants and facing in a better direction. -- AlanKay
Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS. -- AlanKay
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -- Alan Kay
I invented the term "Object-Oriented", and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. --AlanKay
It took 65 years after the invention of the printing press for someone to decide that putting page numbers on books was a good idea! The essay took a century to be invented; thus it is quite likely that the enduring and serious forms of the new media have not been invented -- we are still mired in the imitation of the old: paper, film, and tape.
"STRONG REPRESENTATIVES FROM EACH PAST ERA THRIVE TODAY, SUCH AS PROGRAMMING IN THE THIRTY YEAR OLD LANGUAGE KNOWN AS FORTRAN, AND EVEN IN THE ANCIENT SCRIPT KNOWN AS DIRECT MACHINE CODE. SOME PEOPLE MIGHT LOOK ON SUCH RELICS AS LIVING FOSSILS; OTHERS WOULD POINT OUT THAT EVEN A VERY OLD SPECIES MIGHT STILL BE FILLING A PARTICULAR ECOLOGICAL NICHE."
-- ALAN KAY, Scientific American September 1984...when we teach children English, it is not our intent to teach them a pidgin language, but to gradually reveal the whole thing: the language that Jefferson and Russell wrote in, and with a few style shifts, the language that Shakespeare wrote in...We want learners of English to be able to aspire to the full range of expression the language makes possible. In Computer terms, the range of aspiration should extend at least to the kinds of applications purchased from professionals. By comparison, systems like Hypercard offer no more than a pidgin version of what is possible on the Macintosh.
- Alan Kay from the forward to
Watch What I Do: Programming by Demonstration
'Technology' is 'things invented after I was born'. -- AlanKay
"Point of view is worth 80 IQ points. -- AlanKay"
"The weakest way to solve a problem is just to solve it" -- Alan Kay
The user-friendly computer is a red herring. The user-friendliness of a book just makes it easier to turn pages. There's nothing user-friendly about learning to read.
Page last edited July 25, 2002 |