Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn't take it away from you. I'm happy to share what I can, because I'm in it for the love of programming. - John Carmack
Specifically, my favorite tool in Java is hot code swapping in debug mode, meaning I can edit the code while the game is running and immediately see the results in the running game. This is super great for rapid tweaking. - Markus Persson
I'm not much of a builder in 'Minecraft,' so I don't really understand how much work goes into these big projects. Seeing the flyby videos blows me away, and I have no idea how people do it. - Markus Persson
I have the ability to get code done, but I'm impatient, and it's scrappy as a result. Maybe that helped me with 'Minecraft,' as it came quickly. But, well, at some point, I'd like to actually become a good programmer. - Markus Persson
You can prematurely optimize maintainability, flexibility, security, and robustness just like you can performance. - John Carmack
We had staffed up to do 'Doom 4' internally in parallel with 'Rage'. We also had our mobile and 'Quake Live' departments. We were taking a lot of steps to kind of provide a little bit more scope and protection for ourselves. And we certainly were listening to offers from all the majors about acquisition. - John Carmack
The situation is so much better for programmers today - a cheap used PC, a linux CD, and an internet account, and you have all the tools necessary to work your way to any level of programming skill you want to shoot for. - John Carmack
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. - John Carmack
Sharing the code just seems like The Right Thing to Do, it costs us rather little, but it benefits a lot of people in sometimes very significant ways. There are many university research projects, proof of concept publisher demos, and new platform test beds that have leveraged the code. Free software that people value adds wealth to the world. - John Carmack
The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. You're going to look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else. - Gabe Newell
Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems. - John Carmack
One of the things we joke about in the FPS development is it's so hard to get the player to actually bother to look at all the cool stuff you've been doing. You spend a lot of time making really cool things, and usually the player isn't looking where you want them to. - John Carmack
One of the big lessons of a big project is you don't want people that aren't really programmers programming, you'll suffer for it! - John Carmack
It is a shame that homebrew development can't be officially sanctioned and supported, because it would be a wonderful platform for a modern generation of programmers to be able to get a real feel for low level design work, to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with. - John Carmack
Because of the nature of Moore's law, anything that an extremely clever graphics programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later. - John Carmack
A large fraction of the flaws in software development are due to programmers not fully understanding all the possible states their code may execute in. - John Carmack
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