Rules of Computer Programming

Any given program, when running, is obsolete.
If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.


If a program is useful, it will have to be changed.


Any program will expand to fill any available memory.

The value of a program is proportional to the weight of its output. Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the programmer to maintain it. Make it possible for programmers to write in English and you will find that programmers cannot write in English.

Bradley's Bromide: If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee - that will do them in. Weinberg's Law: If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. Hoare's Law of Large Programs: Inside every large program is a small program struggling to get out.

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.