Epigrams on Programming
E91917
Epigrams on Programming is a celebrated collection of witty, aphoristic observations about software development and computer science authored by Alan Perlis.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Epigrams on Programming canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T781259 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Epigrams on Programming Context triple: [Alan Perlis, notableWork, Epigrams on Programming]
-
A.
Programming Pearls
Programming Pearls is a classic computer science book by Jon Bentley that teaches practical problem-solving, algorithm design, and programming techniques through engaging essays and puzzles.
-
B.
The Mythical Man-Month
The Mythical Man-Month is a classic software engineering book by Fred Brooks that explores the challenges of large-scale software projects and famously argues that adding manpower to a late project makes it later.
-
C.
The Pragmatic Programmer
The Pragmatic Programmer is a highly influential software development book that offers practical advice, best practices, and philosophical guidance for writing maintainable, high-quality code and growing as a professional programmer.
-
D.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship is a highly influential software engineering book by Robert C. Martin that teaches principles and practices for writing readable, maintainable, and high-quality code.
-
E.
The New Hacker's Dictionary
The New Hacker's Dictionary is a comprehensive lexicon and cultural guide to hacker slang, folklore, and traditions, compiled and edited by Eric S. Raymond.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Epigrams on Programming Target entity description: Epigrams on Programming is a celebrated collection of witty, aphoristic observations about software development and computer science authored by Alan Perlis.
-
A.
Programming Pearls
Programming Pearls is a classic computer science book by Jon Bentley that teaches practical problem-solving, algorithm design, and programming techniques through engaging essays and puzzles.
-
B.
The Mythical Man-Month
The Mythical Man-Month is a classic software engineering book by Fred Brooks that explores the challenges of large-scale software projects and famously argues that adding manpower to a late project makes it later.
-
C.
The Pragmatic Programmer
The Pragmatic Programmer is a highly influential software development book that offers practical advice, best practices, and philosophical guidance for writing maintainable, high-quality code and growing as a professional programmer.
-
D.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship is a highly influential software engineering book by Robert C. Martin that teaches principles and practices for writing readable, maintainable, and high-quality code.
-
E.
The New Hacker's Dictionary
The New Hacker's Dictionary is a comprehensive lexicon and cultural guide to hacker slang, folklore, and traditions, compiled and edited by Eric S. Raymond.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computer science writing
ⓘ
essay collection ⓘ software engineering literature ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Yale University ⓘ |
| author | Alan Perlis ⓘ |
| circulatedAs |
online text
ⓘ
printed handouts ⓘ |
| creator | Alan Perlis ⓘ |
| describedAs | celebrated collection of witty observations about programming ⓘ |
| genre |
aphorisms
ⓘ
epigrams ⓘ humor ⓘ |
| hasPart |
“A good system can’t have a weak command language.”
ⓘ
“A language that doesn’t affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.” ⓘ “A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.” ⓘ “A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.” ⓘ “If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.” ⓘ “If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it.” ⓘ “If you can’t write it down in English, you can’t code it.” ⓘ “If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed some.” ⓘ “If you have too many special cases, you are doing it wrong.” ⓘ “In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word ‘frustration’.” ⓘ “In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.” ⓘ “It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.” ⓘ “Lisp programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing.” ⓘ “One man’s constant is another man’s variable.” ⓘ “Optimization hinders evolution.” ⓘ “Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.” ⓘ “There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.” ⓘ “There is no problem in computer science that cannot be solved by another level of indirection.” ⓘ “When someone says ‘I want a programming language in which I need only say what I wish done,’ give him a lollipop.” ⓘ “You can measure a programmer’s perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.” ⓘ |
| hasStyle |
concise
ⓘ
didactic ⓘ ironic ⓘ |
| influenced |
programming folklore
ⓘ
software engineering culture ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
computer science
ⓘ
programming ⓘ software development ⓘ |
| notableFor |
memorable one-line observations about software
ⓘ
witty commentary on programming practice ⓘ |
| publicationContext | computer science community ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
computer scientists
ⓘ
programmers ⓘ software engineers ⓘ |
| timePeriod | late 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Epigrams on Programming Description of subject: Epigrams on Programming is a celebrated collection of witty, aphoristic observations about software development and computer science authored by Alan Perlis.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.