Authors

Harold Abelson

Harold Abelson is an American computer scientist and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He is co-author of the influential textbook Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and a leader in computer science education and open educational resources.

Quotes: 2

Quotes by Harold Abelson

Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute. - Harold Abelson

Code Is Primarily Written for Human Readers

Harold Abelson’s line flips a common beginner assumption: that programming is chiefly about instructing machines. Instead, it frames software as a human communication medium where the true audience is other developers (a...

Created on: 3/13/2026

Code Is Communication Before It Is Execution

Harold Abelson’s line reframes programming from a primarily mechanical act into a human one: code is a message passed between people, with the computer serving as the strict but secondary interpreter. In this view, corre...

Created on: 3/13/2026