Ludovic Courtès wrote:
PS: Note that it is generally much easier to convince people with tangible arguments like this rather than arguing by authority ("trust Me, this is the Right Thing")... :-)
Honestly, I never argue on matters like this "by authority." The bug you refer to is that sometimes I argue from a false presumption of a shared abstract vocabulary and mental model. If you don't share that vocabulary and mental model then, sure, it just looks like I'm saying "because I say so." Well, I *almost* never argue on matters like this "by authority." If a question genuinely calls for an arbitrary (coin-toss) answer -- and those are rare but do happen -- then (at least when I'm the maintainer) "by authority" is the right way to decide. The reason it's the right way to decide is because it removes entropy from the system. Arbitrary questions are essentially aesthetic questions. If they are decided by literal coin-tosses then people learning the system have to, in essence, memorize a random string of bits. If they are decided by the whims of one or a few people, then people learning the system can "compress" that string of bits (i.e., it ceases to be random) by getting a sense of "Hmm.... which option would Tom pick?" So, y'know, if you have to guess what color the bike shed got painted at least you can make a good guess that "it's probably that ugly shade of puke green that Tom is so fond of." :-) -t _______________________________________________ Gnu-arch-users mailing list Gnu-arch-users@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-arch-users GNU arch home page: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnu-arch/
