Xref: utzoo news.admin:15226 news.software.b:8256 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!daver!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b Subject: Re: Really funny jokes being missed Message-ID: <2857E4A4.3A78@tct.com> Date: 13 Jun 91 21:33:24 GMT References: <676316223.2997@mindcraft.com> Organization: Teltronics/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 21 According to mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a *HUG*): >Well, actually I still think that on software engineering grounds, C News >should fix errors if it can. I heartily disagree. The venerable software engineering principle that urges to "be conservative in what you generate" makes obvious the wrongness of attempting to read a human's mind and pass the results off as valid. Well-engineered software is simple and reliable. And as the Jargon File points out, "DWIM (Do What I Mean) is incredibly hairy." >If you can't find a robust and inexpensive way to report errors, you had >better make damn sure you are able to cope with said errors. Of course, "cope with" sometimes translates to "drop into /dev/null". -- Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT , "You can call Usenet a democracy if you want to. You can call it a totalitarian dictatorship run by space aliens and the ghost of Elvis. It doesn't matter either way." -- Dave Mack