From : http://liw.fi/programming-truths/
This page contains a number of important programming truths that every budding programmer should know about. These truths are self-evident, and need no explanations.
- If it compiles, it works.
- If it compiles, it's correct.
- If it runs, it doesn't have any bugs.
- If it doesn't have any immediately obvious bugs, it's perfect.
- If a bug doesn't show, it doesn't exist.
- If it seems to work, it works.
- Doing something right is easy. Avoiding errors only takes a bit of concentration.
- The shorter the source code, the faster the program.
- It's obvious how to optimize a program.
- Prorammers don't make mistakes.
- Run-time errors don't occur.
- Users don't make mistakes.
- I don't make mistakes.
- Errors of any kind are rare.
- Error handling can be done in version 2.
- It's OK to crash on bad input.
- It's OK to give incorrect output on bad input.
- Portability isn't useful.
- All the world's a VAX. Or, these days, an MS-DOS box
- The length of the feature list is important.
- Speed is good, features are better.
- Slowness can be fixed in hardware.
- The bigger a program is, the better it is.
- Random changes to a program fix bugs.
- Testing takes only a short while.
- Finding bugs is easy. Fixing bugs is trivial.
- Bug-fixes don't need to be tested.
- Trivial changes of any kind don't need to be tested.
- The first approach, idea, or version is always the best.
- A 1% crash rate is actually pretty darn good.
- Code is self-evident. Comments aren't needed.
- Comments are meant for people other than the original author of the code.
- Undocumented features are fun and useful.
- It can always be fixed in the next version.
- Surprised users are happy users.
- Demonstrating for clients is the best debugging method.
