[Top][All Lists]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [Gnu-arch-users] not everyone likes implicit shortcuts
From: |
zander |
Subject: |
Re: [Gnu-arch-users] not everyone likes implicit shortcuts |
Date: |
Sun, 9 Nov 2003 17:09:30 +0100 |
On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 08:08:18AM -0800, Tom Lord wrote:
>
>
> > From: address@hidden
>
> [on defaults and shortcuts]
>
> > Some years ago I was in Germany with a group of people; we wanted to
> > go from one end of town to another, so we decided to take the bus.
> > The person buying the tickets asked for one ticket for 10 persons.
> > The busdriver answered that he did not have any.
> > The person buying then asked for 2 tickets for 5 persons. (which he
> > luckely saw behind the driver)
> > We got the tickets and were on our way.
>
> > What we were all very surprised about was that the busdriver did not
> > think with us; he was not going to suggest there were 5-person tickets
> > and was just going to wait untill we ordered; be it 10 1-person tickets
> > for all he cared.
>
> > Your idea that you should be able to tell the bus driver exactly what
> > you want is fine with me, no problem here.
> > But please accept that most of us don't want to investigate what it
> > is that the busdriver is waiting for; just give me a good default and
> > I am on my way.
>
> That's not a good analogy for this case. A better one would be
> something like:
>
[snip example where a wrong default was provided]
Good defaults are hard, yes. They also don't end the rule that if the
application can't make a decision for the user he must ask the user.
There is a _big_ distance between these two and much space to find the best
rules.
For example; tla import can ask when no files are added if all source
files should be automatically added.
It makes our lifes a lot easier and gives us that 'finished' feeling that
I still miss when working with tla.
Right, this is not a default, but the general idea is not that different..
--
Thomas Zander