Re: [Ghm-discuss] The posh talk does not complain with the policy

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

() Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn-mXXj517/address@hidden>
() Wed, 20 Aug 2014 08:23:08 +0200

   But, this code is buggy.

Silly programmer!

   What is the bug (as discerned from this discussion)?

Why stop at one?!

   What was the fix?  What is the long-term fix if any?

Oh stop this condescending spew, you feckless fool!

OK, i see i have stumbled incompetently into the conversation, and
not really helped it along in any sense, so forget all that noise.

But OTOH...  all that noise has intent on transmit and consequence
on receive, like all communication.  Whatever the intent, it is
possible that the consequence for some reader could be offense.

For example, years ago i would have taken offense at the usage of
C instead of (say) Emacs Lisp, and even now, re-reading the func i
(kind of, sort of, when in a severe mood) take offense at the
syntax error (broken type decl for ‘coolness’).  In both cases,
the offense manifests as the thought "How dare ttn do ACTION!?"
followed by unflattering mutterings, etc.  In both cases, the
offense arises from previous negative experiences (w/ C, w/ public
stupidity) that i expect ttn to be thoughtful about (especially
when communicating w/ ME!) but end up feeling disappointed with.
One or two screwups, no worries; repeated transgressions: GRRRR.

Anyway, i had imagined writing a long exposition reflecting on my
(partial) role as transmitter in this thread, including grotesque
personal memories illustrating how foolish i was (and am wont to
be), but who wants to waste time reading such self-centered crud?

Instead, i take the opportunity to underline the key point made by
Jim Blandy (as i understand it, YMMV, please correct me if i'm not
Getting It), that an effective working relationship requires focus
on core shared values, but that doesn't mean that divisive factors
should be overlooked entirely.  Rather, they should be weighted
less, like sliding the alpha value of an object (in Inkscape) to
less than 100%, but definitely more than 0%.

That's the ideal, which is underspecified.  Which brings us back
to the ideal GHM organization strategy, which was likewise, until
very late, underspecified.  Perhaps ‘cool_meeting_p’ can be
improved in these ways:

 - (maybe :-D) use a Lisp already
 - don't "fail fast" (don't fail at all)
 - for well-behavedness, call a func, and pass context
 - redesign w/ scalar (non-boolean) rv

Generally, i think slack should be considered a core shared value.
I find it easy to conjure (for other GNU hackers), when i keep in
mind how we all suffer from proprietary software and its mindset.

-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen
   GPG key: 4C807502
   (if you're human and you know it)
      read my lisp: (responsep (questions 'technical)
                               (not (via 'mailing-list)))
                     => nil

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