Re: Trying to tell me something?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Iain * wrote:

> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:27:32 +0100
> From: Iain * <iaingnome gmail com>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: gnome-multimedia gnome org
> Subject: Re: Trying to tell me something?
>
> Hmm, oppps.
>
> While not aimed at you
> It was inspired by you.
> Although I meant no offence.

None taken but like I said if I'm doing something wrong I want to know.
I'd prefer to be wrong and know I'm doing something stupid than to keep
doing it like a idiot.

> You can think the Unix Philosophy is the best thing since sliced bread
> If you want
> I just disagree
> And will not write my programs around it.
> Philosophies are there to be thought about
> Not preached as dogma.

Blind faith is stupid.  We all need to question our own assumptions once
in a while if they are to have any real value.

Dogma is bad but old ideas should be considered and rejected for a reason.
If you care to mail me offlist telling me more about your dislike of the
old unix philosophy I would be genuinely interested to read about it.

I understand the "Do one thing well" philosophy only really worked because
command line applications can be combined into more than the sum of their
parts using pipes and redirects.  GUI applcations do not have the same
kind of infrastructure allowing them to be easily recombined, at least not
yet.  I don't blindly recommend things without having some understanding
of the downsides and ideas about where to bend the rules.

People are also very sneaky about what exactly the one thing they claim to
do well actually is and define it so broadly as to be meaningless.

> But my hatred of "The Unix Philosophy" goes back longer than you, so
> don't take that personally. And then shaun made the comment about
> pithy phrases to you, and it just caught exacty what I was feeling at
> the time, so I stuck with it, and used it more as a homage to him,
> than as an attack on you.

My reaction to that was 'a good programmer isn't necessarily the same
thing as a good designer' but instead I took the more polite approach of
pointing out that I'm not claiming to be an expert or have all the answer
but instead I try to give suggestions for developers to consider.

> I'd expand on my hated of "The Unix Philosophy", but it'd just start a
> flame war, and this aint the forum for that.

Feel free to educate me offlist, or point to some suitable reading of
previous times you have explained your point of view.

> Apologies, and keep doing what you're doing

Thanks.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

> On 7/13/05, Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie> wrote:
> >
> > I think someone is making a none too subtle point:
> > Marlin 0.8 - The Unix Philosophy Is A Lie
> > Marlin 0.9 - Pithy Phrases Do Not Make Good Software Design
> >
> > I'm trying my best here to provide constructive feedback.
> >
> > I'm sorry if I offended you in some way but if I have, please say
> > something and let me know what I could try to do better.
> >
> > I am only trying like everyone else to make Gnome better in my own way.