Quotes of the week

[Posted October 2, 2013 by n8willis]

Lisp is like a honeypot for smart people.

— Ward Cunningham, as quoted by Jonan Scheffler

Now does seem to be about the right time to scream "you will take the middle-click paste from my cold dead fingers".

Later, after the initial beta release, would be the time to say "oh, that horrid thing you've done that I never use and keep accidentally getting when I try to paste, and makes me want to throw my mouse out the window? Let's make it green instead of blue".

— David Woodhouse

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Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 4, 2013 10:03 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (2 responses)

Hah. Elsewhere in the thread David's comment comes from, Allan Day uses the line

> since general discussions on mailing lists are the road to hell

to shoot down people pointing out that continuously iterating user interface paradigms is not a way to make users happy with your product.

One wonders how he's managed to get anything done at all in free software if he's unwilling to discuss anything more general than the fine details of designs, *after* those designs are implemented, on mailing lists.

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 4, 2013 11:06 UTC (Fri) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

Even today, some libre (and quite a lot of gratis) software consists of one- or two-developer cathedrals. (On the gratis side, the astonishingly baroque bearded-alcoholic-manchild simulator Dwarf Fortress springs immediately to mind.)

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 4, 2013 17:46 UTC (Fri) by sorpigal (subscriber, #36106) [Link]

The playbook here is familiar.

1. A new design proposes a change. It's still being planned, so it's too early to hear complaints about things that we aren't sure we want to propose.

2. The change is in progress. It's too early for feedback because the implementation isn't finished, wait until it's finished and then we'll have to time hear about what you don't like.

3. The change is complete. It's too late to collect input from users now, you should have provided input during the design phase.

4. The change is released. We considered all input provided at design time and think this is really better, so please take time to get used to it before you complain.

This has happened repeatedly.