Stephen C. Johnson

“The cost of adding a feature isn't just the time it takes to code it. The cost also includes the addition of an obstacle to future expansion. The trick is to pick the features that don't fight each other.”

“My model of programming is that I have a blob of clay and I’m shaping it. I’m not building a building, where I have to order the steel and the concrete. I’m just shaping this blob of clay.”

“It became clear that C was not a portable language. So we started trying to figure out what to do to make it more portable.”

“The YACC paper started with an example: a simple desk calculator. To this day, people come up to me and say, 'I learned YACC from the desk calculator.' It's my big success in user interface design.”

“One of my rules in consulting is, I will tell you what I believe. I may be wrong, but I will tell you.”

“There's a real joy in making a tool that does one thing really well.”