Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!bionet!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdurb!aglew
From: aglew@mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: clarification: wrapped searches
Message-ID: <57600022@mcdurb>
Date: 20 Jan 89 16:34:00 GMT
References: <2925@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU>
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #R:uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU:2925:mcdurb:57600022:000:1270
Nf-From: mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM!aglew    Jan 20 10:34:00 1989


>Randy should have asked the question he meant in the first place.
>
>Matt Crawford	     		matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu

Well, I'm probably going to regret this, since I've seen many
of Matt's postings and learned a bit from them, but...

"Asking the question he meant in the first place" 
is a rather juvenile response, typical of many computer scientists,
and an attitude that will have to disappear if computer science
is to become a true profession.
    First: at least two of Randy's readers picked up on what he
wanted - myself, and Dan Laliberte - and while I have been accused
of being a stuffed shirt, Dan is a hackers' hacker. So, the
meaning wasn't _too_ deeply hidden.
    Second, and now we leave the vicinity of this original discussion:
if you are a computer professional advising a client it is not
professional to simply give the customer what he asks for. 
A professional is supposed to give advice about what the customer
really needs.
    This comment was prompted by the spate of articles in comp.risk
about mega-buck computer system failures, many of which "didn't do
the job" although they "satisfied the requirements". The contractors
may not have written the requirements, but they should have tried
to ensure that the requirements were reasonable.