Ron Stodden wrote:
> Alas, but no. Software is a branch of engineering, not of literature.
> A product of reality, not of fantasy. Installation of software on blank
> hardware involves the installation of successive layers, each on top of, and
> dependent upon, the one below. A good examplary metaphor is building a
> house (or a car, or a bridge, or for that matter, a relationship) .
> First you must establish the foundation, then build on top of that the
> floor, and so on. And finally, the roof, at the top.
First of all, this is utterly irrelevant to the question at hand. But just
for arguments sake, I should point out that although this is the correct way
to build a house, it's the wrong way to build software. At least, according
to the people with the Ph.D.s at the University I went to. Good software is
designed from a top-down approach. Spagetti code is written from the
bottom-up. Not that this is in any way relevant to how to organize text
labels written in English. Even if I were to grant that software should be
designed and written from the bottom up, why would this have anything to do
with what order English text should flow across the screen?
> Would you erect the roof first? Then somehow build downwards?
So, when you write the comments and design documentation for code you're
working on, do you start writing at the bottom of the page and work
upwards? Man, I'd get kicked out of my company if I followed _your_ model!
> Awareness of the layered structure of software is essential to understanding
> and using Linux on your computer. Memory and disk maps are
> conventionally drawn with address 000000 at the bottom, and filled up from
> the bottom, just like a glass is filled with liquid or the way bricks are
> organised into a wall.
Hmm. When I type "hexedit somefile" on my computer, 00000000 is at the top,
not the bottom. Which program follows your "convention"?
> Would you fill a glass somehow beginning at the top?
Nope. This is, of course, completely and utterly irrelevant to the fact
that English text should always flow from top to bottom, not the other way
around. English text is not software. If we're going to have a checklist
of items completed on the side of the screen, each having a text label, they
need to go from top to bottom. Writing English is not the same as writing
software.
***
BTW: Why does the Reply-To field on Ron's messages not point to the list?
-- Guy T. Rice ---------------------------------- <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --
"Every human being should pursue his or her own dharma perfectly instead
of following another's dharma imperfectly." -- Hindu scriptures
