On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 04:43:17AM -0600, Michael D. Carey wrote:
> I want it to be "idiot proof"...
It's in practice almost impossible to make things idiot proof. Why
not, instead, expect the user to be able to think and not to be a
total dumbfuck, and if they are a dumbfuck, that's their loss?
> I want the installation instructions for this program to be
> "put it somewhere and run it"
Real life isn't that simple. Computers are complex machines (far more
complex than pretty much all mechanical devices ever created), not
windup toys, unlike what most people want to think. Why not, instead
of trying to let the user pretend that the machine is a windup toy,
make the user face reality a bit?
> I don't want to assume that the user will know. I don't
> even want to know what port *your* server is running on...
> I want to develop a function which will reliably tell me
> what port freenet is using on any given local machine. If
> there isn't a method somewhere in freenet.jar, I am going to
> search in freenet.ini (in windows) and .freenetrc (in Unix).
> In order to search the files... I have to know where most
> people keep them.
Why can't the user just look in the Freenet configuration files, or
just download nmap and do "nmap -sT localhost"? They're both really
damn easy - almost no work there. What's the point to dumbing down
things even more just to accomodate those people who aren't willing to
THINK (probably because they're way too used to dumbed down software -
back in the days when people really did have to think to use
computers, people tended to know far more about how to really use
their machines...).
> In PERL there is a special variable which tells you what
> platform you are running on.
>
> PERL is an excellent cross platform "control language" for
> Java in my opinion.
Perl is a thoroughly horrible language. Both Python and Ruby do what
it does, but far better and far cleaner...
> Here is what I mean... look at getjavapath() and
> getnullfile()...
> > Is there some other way to determine what port the node is
> > operating on?
>
> You could do something horribly radical like asking the
> user....
Yeah, I agree completely.
--
Yes, I know my enemies.
They're the teachers who tell me to fight me.
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance,
hypocrisy, brutality, the elite.
All of which are American dreams.
- Rage Against The Machine
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