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From: df@sei.cmu.edu (Dan Farmer)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: ALED goes to the wastebasket here in Iceland
Message-ID: <27139@as0c.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 17 Jun 91 15:46:12 GMT
Sender: netnews@sei.cmu.edu
Lines: 40

In article <foo>, frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason) writes:
> In article <bar> df@sei.cmu.edu (Dan Farmer) writes:
> What would you say if I wrote (and posted) an editor which did not allow
> you to use C,Q,W or Z - after all, we don't use those letters, so nobody
> else could possibly have any use for them, right ?

  I wouldn't use it, that's all.  As other people say, a programmer writes
for his or her audience; if you want to do just that, then that's your
perogative.

> >... but just because it lacks a feature you want, that perhaps isn't
> >needed by the target audience of the programmer, it is basically trash.  
> Feature ?
> The ability of PC programs to support 8 bit characters is not a feature - it
> is an essential requirement.  Any program which does not is trash!  

  Trash to you, not to me, and not to tens of millions of PC users.
I might, someday, use the 8th bit support of an editor, but I'm not
holding my breath.  Just like your editor you proposed above wouldn't
be trash -- it might prove very useful to you (although you probably
wouldn't want to use it to compose letters to post to the net :-)),
but not to me.

> >I think it looks like a fine editing program -- but even if I hated it,
> >what good would flaming it here do me?
> Well, my reason for flaming is simple - perhaps I might reach the ears of
> some American programmers (well, nobody else writes 7-bit PC programs) who
> are not yet aware that this is an 8-bit world :-)

  It might prove more useful to write to the author, and to write some
nice article saying why it *is* important, like someone (you, perhaps?
I didn't notice the author) did after all the flamage started.  Perhaps
if the author had said something like "well, I don't *care* if it masks
the 8th bit", then you'd be more justified in your flame.  IMHO, of
course :-)  You could certainly argue that your (and your compatriots)
comments had an even greater audience, and that your point was made all
the more clear by all the hubub.  I don't think the ends justifies the
means, tho...

 -- dan