Funny Software Development Quotes

Over the years, I’ve collected some of the smartest-yet-funny software development quotes I have read. Here’s the current short list in no particular order. Oddly enough, they all address the woes of programming.

Feel free to add any like quotes in the comment section!

1.     My Favorite one : “”First learn computer science and all the theory. Next develop a programming style. Then forget all that and just hack.”".

2.     Hardware runs on smoke. Once the smoke is released, the hardware stops working.

3.     “The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.” – Tom Cargill

4.     “In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.” – Author Unknown

5.     “I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.” – Bjarne Stroustrup

6.     “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history, with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.” – Mitch Ratcliffe

7.     “There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.” -C.A.R. Hoare

8.     “The gap between theory and practice is not as wide in theory as it is in practice.” – Author Unknown

9.     “If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.” – Gerald Weinberg

10. “If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.” – Edsger Dijkstra

11. “Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.” – Bill Gates

12. “Nine people can’t make a baby in a month.” – Fred Brooks

13. “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.” – Rich Cook

14. “There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence.” – Jeremy S. Anderson

15. “Before software can be reusable it first has to be usable.” – Ralph Johnson

16. “Any fool can use a computer. Many do.”

17. Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

18. We have a deal with God – he doesn’t produce software and we do not produce miracles – a software engineer.

19. Software is not complete..untill the last user is dead…

20. “My software never has bug, it’s just developing a random features.”

21. “Naturally, a tool for getting rid of bugs in your program is called a ‘debugger’. Mudanely enough, the corresponding tool for putting bugs into your program is called a ‘programmer’.”