John Backus Quotes
Von Neumann languages do not have useful properties for reasoning about programs. Axiomatic and denotational semantics are precise tools for describing and understanding conventional programs, but they only talk about them and cannot alter their ungainly properties. Unlike von Neumann languages, the language of ordinary algebra is suitable both for stating its laws and for transforming an equation into its solution, all within the "language."
Quotes to Explore
-
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
-
Being flown to the U.S. to meet Sofia Coppola is really exciting. I was freaking out. I'm a little nervous, as I don't want to muck it up I want to do my best.
-
Any government that has a sincere desire for reform and progress should understand the benefit of objective and constructive criticism.
-
Darling, when you're as old as I am, you cherish the very few musicals that have come your way that you know are great classics. You become their guardian.
-
No man can be ideally successful until he has found his place. Like a locomotive he is strong on the track, but weak anywhere else.
-
Among irrational animals the love of the offspring and of the parents for each other is extraordinary because God, who created them, compensated for the deficiency of reason by the superiority of their senses.
-
I've always dreamed of having an album. The problem is that it's just very difficult to make an album nowadays because through technology, music shifts so fast, especially electronic music. Once you make five songs, the first one you did is already old and you wished you would have put it out right away. So that's kind of the difficult part.
-
You can't try to be somebody you're not; that's not style. If someone says, 'Buy this - you'll be stylish,' you won't be stylish because you won't be you. You have to learn who you are first, and that's painful.
-
In January '77 I went out to LA and have been here 26 years.
-
I feel like obviously the standard for what TV looks like changes all the time.
-
The Bible calls us to love our neighbors, and to do justice and love kindness, not to indiscriminately kill one another.
-
No such thing as a man willing to be honest - that would be like a blind man willing to see.
-
You do a show to be a hit and hopefully run a couple of years.
-
You've got to separate the singer and the songs.
-
I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.
-
When I became director of CIA, it was just clear to me intuitively, without a whole lot of science behind it, that we had expanded rapidly and inefficiently. So I arbitrarily picked a number, 10 percent, and I said over the next 12 months, we are going to reduce our reliance on contractors by 10 percent.
-
I support capital punishment. But let's be clear: It's a decision for each state to make.
-
Every child has a right to learn in an environment that is safe.
-
We used to have a tax in this country called the Estate Tax, which was very popular, because it's a tax on very, very, very rich fucks who die. And people thought, 'That's a good person to tax.' And that is a good person to tax! Because rich fucks who die should give away their money, or else they give it to their ne'er-do-well kid who becomes Uday Hussein.
-
After studying the Hungarian language for years, I can confidently conclude that had Hungarian been my mother tongue, it would have been more precious. Simply because through this extraordinary, ancient and powerful language it is possible to precisely describe the tiniest differences and the most secretive tremors of emotions.
-
There's a real danger in doing a sequel. There are some benefits, but that all hinges on how well you execute. Quite frankly, most sequels don't execute well.
-
Von Neumann languages do not have useful properties for reasoning about programs. Axiomatic and denotational semantics are precise tools for describing and understanding conventional programs, but they only talk about them and cannot alter their ungainly properties. Unlike von Neumann languages, the language of ordinary algebra is suitable both for stating its laws and for transforming an equation into its solution, all within the "language."
