[Ticket#: 2006040510000641] Re: [OT] Articles to read

[Bob Warren]

Dan Shafer wrote:

 >Bob.....

 >While I found much to agree with in your post, your gratuitous swipes 
 >at "the severe cases of denial that key contributers to this list seem 
 >to suffer from" was one I couldn't let pass without comment. I'm sure 
 >I'm on that list.

Thanks Dan. I'm not so sure as you appear to be.

 >It's not denial. It's different experience. As Rob Cozens has pointed 
 >out quite cogently, the fact that you experience bugs in the IDE and 
 >others don't doesn't mean they're in denial. It may mean a lot of 
 >things. Maybe they've developed some reflex that keeps them from doing 
 >certain things a certain way because when they do, things break. Maybe 
 >they're exercising completely different parts of the IDE from you. 
 >Maybe there are system configuration issues at work that none of us 
yet >understands. There are many reasons a "key contributor" to this 
list >might not experience or report the same problems as others but you 
need >not attribute a bad motivation of denail or (as you do later in 
your >post) politics. None of us has a thing to gain from defending Rev 
when >it shouldn't be defended and I can guarantee you that every one of 
 >those "key contributors" has at one time or another been as vocal and 
 >vociferous about their bug experiences as you are now.

As I said in my post, just try using the Linux version of Rev for 5 
minutes, and then tell me what the state of your patience is. And as I 
also said, I am just trying to find some kind of explanation for the 
fact that so many people seem to be blind or uninformed. All the 
suggestions you make above are indeed credible, but they don't match my 
experience, that's all. So after wrestling with the Linux version, I'm 
short on patience. They launch 2.7 for Windows, I rub my hands together 
in glee, and load my first project into it. What's the first thing I 
see? A bug before my very eyes!** And that's before even trying to run 
the project. I'm sorry, but that's scandalous. Perhaps my tendency to 
hit out in all directions is a little misplaced, but it is not difficult 
to understand, is it?

Another thing that gets me worked up (but not from your post) is people 
citing their curriculum vitae before telling us that we ought to swallow 
great excesses of bugs because somehow it is "natural and normal" 
nowadays. In actual fact, I was hand-punching machine language bootstrap 
routines on Hollerith cards before these people were even born. So what?
Experience leads either to greater wisdom or to greater blindness.

That said, you can rest assured that I respect your carefully considered 
opinion, as we all do. Thanks for your comments.


** i.e. the barber's pole background my combo box has now acquired.