Computer quote

[James A. Landau]

from URL http://www.fact-index.com/s/sa/sapir_whorf_hypothesis.html

<snip>when designing an algorithm to solve a particular problem, programmers
are typically heavily influenced by the language constructs available. Though
a large part of this is undoubtedly the way of least resistance (implement
whatever is easiest to implement), there is also an element of "appropriateness"
or "naturalness" that seems to compel the programmer to a design that "befits"
the language.

Most programmers consider this a Good Thing, and the bewildering multitude of
programming languages can be defended with the remark that a new programming
language, while not extending the set of all possible algorithms, does extend
the set of all algorithms we can efficiently think about. A well-known epigram
by Alan Perlis states that "a language that doesn't affect the way you think
about programming, is not worth knowing".