Should we not mistake the tool for the task? A hammer and a screwdriver are different tools for different tasks, but if a screwdriver with a 2" shaft and one with a 4" shaft will both tighten and loosen the same screw, who's to say that one is the 'right' one to use? As Greg's pointed out, we teach the tools, but really we're trying to teach the practices.
Greg, how far off 'good enough' practices does that blog post sound? -- bennet On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Greg Wilson <gvwil...@software-carpentry.org> wrote: > The biggest thing I'm taking away from this blog post is that lousy > interfaces and obscure failure modes really are inhibiting adoption of > better computing practices. From the post: > > if you’re like me, you will screw up at some point, leading to some problem, > potentially catastrophic, that you will spend hours trying to figure out. > I’m clearly not alone... “Abort: remote heads forked” anyone? :) At that > point, we all just call over the one person in lab who knows how to deal > with all this crap and hope for the best. And look, I’m relatively computer > savvy, so I can only imagine how intimidating all this is for people who are > less computer savvy. > > > I heard fewer complaints of this kind, and believe that I saw higher > adoption rates, when we were teaching Subversion. I'm not going to > recommend that we switch back, but I do miss it whenever I have to help > someone deal with a detached head... > > Thanks, > Greg > > -- > Dr Greg Wilson > Director of Instructor Training > Software Carpentry Foundation > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
