Eric S. Raymond Quotes

born 1957 United States

Eric S. Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to by his initials ESR, is the author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar and the present maintainer of the Jargon File (also known as "The New Hacker's Dictionary").

United States
Bloggers
Critics
Libertarians
Programmers

Also known as: Homesteading the Noosphere, The Art of Unix Programming, The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Random Eric S. Raymond quote

28 quotes

I publish this blog in part because I think it is my duty to speak taboo and unspeakable truths.

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)

Barring the mythical portable-LISP-dialect-with-good-OS-bindings that has never existed, Python is about the most reasonable alternative there is for this kind of work.

Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)

At any sufficient scale, those who do not have automatic memory management in their language are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

The habit of institutional tone policing, even when well-intentioned, too easily slides into the active censorship of disfavored views.

When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)

Being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker anymore than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer.

How to Become a Hacker (2007)

It is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature.

Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.

The Art of Unix Programming (1999)

Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse).

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)

We define idiotarianism as the species of delusion within the moral community of mankind that gives aid and comfort to terrorists and tyrants operating outside it.

When I hear the words "social responsibility", I want to reach for my gun.

And for any agents or proxy of the regime interested in asking me questions face to face, I've got some bullets slathered in pork fat to make you feel extra special welcome.

The nightmare scenario is one in which corporate monopolism and statist power-seeking, always natural allies, feed back into each other and create rationales for increasing regulation, repression, and criminalization of digital speech.

The Art of Unix Programming (1999)

… and we're weighed down by a crappy implementation language (C++).

Don't forget to have fun. That drive to experiment, to try things, to have fun, to be playful, that is what will sustain your creativity over the long term. Don't lose that.

Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.

How to Become a Hacker (2007)

It is probably no longer possible to achieve tenure at a major American university after giving offense to the homosexual-activist lobby. Fortunately, I don't have that sort of career issue to worry about, and can therefore speak without fear.

It is well understood in the community that project owners have a duty to pass projects to competent successors when they are no longer willing or able to invest needed time in development or maintenance work.

Homesteading the Noosphere (1998)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Eric S. Raymond (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.