Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 12:48:55 +1100 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu>, FreeBSD-chat <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG>, Ken Keeler <kkeysler@nwlink.com> Subject: Re: Smaller, Dedicated tools and Greg's Daemon News Article Message-ID: <19981215124855.28247@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <19981215111225.O17075@freebie.lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Tue, Dec 15, 1998 at 11:12:25AM %2B1030 References: <19981214083023.C2587@freebie.lemis.com> <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812132318160.6577-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu> <19981214201953.52678@welearn.com.au> <19981215111225.O17075@freebie.lemis.com>
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On Tue, Dec 15, 1998 at 11:12:25AM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote:
> On Monday, 14 December 1998 at 20:19:53 +1100, Sue Blake wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 13, 1998 at 11:29:40PM -0800, Jason C. Wells wrote:
> >> I spent the entire weekend doing battle with Microsoft products. We
> >> produced a 400 page report using the bastard Word 97. Easily 20 full man
> >> hours were spent trying to figure why there were big red X's where
> >> pictures used to be and recovering files that were corrupted during
> >> crashes. We could not put together more than 20MB/200 pages of text before
> >> complete instability occured.
> >>
> >> What a horrible waste of time.
> >>
> >> Oh yeah, don't forget that little paper clip sucker in the right corner.
> >> Good thing I didn't have my gun. I'da shot the futhermocker right in his
> >> litte winky eye.
> >>
> >> Imagine trying to put together "The Complete FreeBSD" in this environment.
> >>
> >> The point is, I know how well small dedicated tools work. I haven't
> >> learned the text editing tools because I was never motivated to do so.
> >>
> >> A recent email chat combined with Greg's article have completely convinced
> >> me that I should learn a little bit more programming in order to make my
> >> life easier.
> >>
> >> Emacs, Tex, here I come!
> >
>
> > Greg will scowl from his perch, but even the simplest programming is
> > beyond me at the moment. There are other ways, though. First a tale
> > of woe.
>
> [Illustrative story omitted]
>
> No, you don't understand. Well, I suspect you do understand, but
> you're pretending not to. The article in question was not about
> programming, it was about control. You have wrested control in the
> manner I was advocating.
My point exactly. We do similar things for similar reasons but we
attribute success differently. You advocate programming as the way to
wrest control. Not the main point, but enough to make me very nervous.
I start by typing 'cat notes.txt' and notes.txt contains all the
commands I'm afraid of forgetting. I could just as well type 'sh
notes.txt' and then you'd attribute what I was doing to programming,
which would scare the bejeebers out of me. Next you'd be expecting me
to get all tangled up on those loopy things with punctuation and dollar
signs spitting out everywhere and I'd be losing control, not gaining
it. Then I'd run away and look for comfort in less efficient methods
that I _can_ control. Anything but programming! And I'd still end up
doing the same as what you're advocating.
> If you had needed a little program (never played with PERL?),
You know I have. It's not comfortable because I don't understand every
part of it. Hardly any, actually. It robs me of control. You're spot on
about the motivator, but one person's tool is another's strait-jacket.
> you could have written one to play around with
> your RTF stuff, and you probably would have. The thing is that the
> *ability* to program is part of your control.
Not as much as you might think. My inability to program, in most cases,
is what fires me to look for and invent better solutions that I can
cope with on my own. Then nobody can scare me away by expecting
me to have skills I haven't got.
Sure, the only differences between what you and I are saying are in
semantics and gut reactions. Don't underestimate their potency. As a
non-programmer who is easily frightened, in order to claim your
approach as my own I have to deny that programming is an essential
element.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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