Ken Thompson, 1983 Turing Award Lecturehttp://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763.
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FORTRAN was the language of choice for the same reason that three-legged races are popular.
— Ken Thompson on Fortran
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "FORTRAN was the language of choice for the same reason that three-legged races are popular." in the context of "Ken Thompson, 1983 Turing Award Lecturehttp://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Fortran" (Quotes)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Ken Thompson
Kenneth Lane Thompson (born 4 February 1943) is a computer scientist and winner of the 1983 Turing Award, together with Dennis Ritchie. He is notable for his work on the Unix operating system.
About Ken Thompson
Kenneth Lane Thompson (born 4 February 1943) is a computer scientist and winner of the 1983 Turing Award, together with Dennis Ritchie. He is notable for his work on the Unix operating system.
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