我们满怀敬意和仰慕，将此书献给计算机中的神灵。
我想，对于计算机科学领域中的我们而言，保持计算机学的乐趣是极其重要的。最初，从事计算机科学是那么的有意思。但随着那些那些付了钱的客户时不时受到亏待，我们开始认真对待他们的抱怨，我们开始觉得自己似乎有义务确保这些机器成功、且没有错误的完美运行。然而，我认为实际上我们并没有这样的义务。我们应去延展机器的功能，让它们驶向新的方向，并让房间充满欢乐。我希望计算机科学领域永远不失趣味。总之，我希望，你们不要成为传教士。不要觉得你们是圣经推销员——这个世界上那些人已经太多了。你们学到的有关计算的知识别人也会学到，所以不要以为成功计算的秘诀只掌握在你们的手中。我认为并且希望，在你们手中握着的是智慧：一种相比初见计算机时看得更多，并且运用得更多的能力。
——艾伦·佩利 (1922.4.1 - 1990.2.7)
This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer.
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)