23 Quotes by Charles Petzold

I started out with machine code and assembly language.

Free lunches don't come cheap.

Programming in machine code is like eating with a toothpick

I felt more like a scientist exploring nature, and Windows was my environment. You dont pass judgment on nature; you just explain how it works.

Many MIDI files contain entire musical compositions. Because MIDI supports only 16 channels, however, no more than 16 different instruments can play at any time, and one of those is the key-based percussion instrument.

MIDI made a natural transition to the PC. The MIDI messages that make up a musical composition can be saved as MIDI files, which are collections of MIDI messages with timing information.

Blend is great for designers because it implements a lot of sophisticated behaviours, but for what I like to do, hand coding XAML is preferable, particularly because I have to publish it.

Some programs - especially games - require that your system be set to a particular color depth and resolution. Often such special settings are different from your usual mode, though.

I really liked figuring things out on my own. Early on in the development of a new version of Windows, I would explore it, I would try out various things, I would see what worked, I would see what didn't work.