Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA
From: MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: illegality
Message-ID: <792@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Aug-84 11:24:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou3c.792
Posted: Fri Aug 24 11:24:17 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Aug-84 01:11:20 EDT
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 22
To: Header-People@MIT-MC.ARPA
Postal-Address: 725 Mariposa Ave. #103; Mountain View, CA 94041
Phone: (415) 497-1407 (Stanford); (415) 968-1052 (residence)


     I sure wish that people would use "invalid" instead of
"illegal" when referring to syntax validity checking or other
forms of user-error checking on computers.  "Illegal" should
be reserved for things which are against the law; e.g. theft
of services, vandalism, fraudulent usage, etc.

     I still remember the day a few years ago when I found a
newly-hired secretary at Stanford CSD crying.  You see, it was
her first day on the computer, and shortly after being left
alone with a zillion things to enter in she made some trivial
error which rewarded her with an "Illegal syntax" error message.
She was terrified that the FBI was going to come and arrest her!
[The fact that "syntax" itself is a horrible word to use in an
error message in any program a novice might use is beside the
point]

     I firmly believe that computers should be made more accessible
to the general public, not less, and we should start by not
misusing the term "illegal."  I start feeling ill every time I
see some message saying so-and-so's "header is ILLEGAL"!
-------