Scott Raney wrote:

> Is anyone else struck by the irony of this post?  Why do I waste my
> time even trying to educate people on the issue when it's abundantly
> clear that removing the mouse function from the language entirely is
> only way to fix the problem...

Hmm, I thought someone had suggested that this aspect of the debate be
closed....

Anyway, I think we've heard all the arguments, and neither side is budging
an inch. Naturally; it's somewhat subjective. I know, you'd say it was
entirely objective based on technical considerations, but that's a different
issue; the subjective issue is whether this imperfect but to some likeable
type of feature should be left in the hands of the MC/Rev users and their
discretion be trusted as capable and worthy, or whether it should be
discarded or at least least locked up tight with heavy chains and warning
labels.

I don't think any of the people who use MC or Revolution are completely void
of intelligence, so just as a suggestion (not to be taken as a retort but
seriously) how trusting users' judgment rather than looking down on them as
needing to be educated and their hands slapped if they start to type out the
wrong syntax? I think the educational message has been heard and will
continue to be heard. A sentence or two in the documentation would probably
be quite enough to ensure that the majority of people would be informed.

You told me that using the functions for quick testing purposes or when the
app is not given to other people. We disagree about use in education (not
talking about CS majors here) and special situations in serious apps. If it
is okay for testing, wouldn't it be inconvenient to have a global property
which must be set before using it? Yes, perhaps the IDE could set that for
us, but that would still provide a nuisance for people who did decide to use
polling, however sparingly or rarely, in the final project. Of course, you'd
think that was great so that they wouldn't even want to use it sparingly or
rarely, but there's the subjectivity again, and it's taking a very low view
of the users who still have the function around for one reason or the other.

So why not stop pounding each other about it, especially with the personal
comments about people who persist in doing it dirty RatherThanDoingItRight
or are exasperatingly hard to "educate", and just find a good balance for
the function which is easy enough to implement and provides a pretty
acceptable behavior for those that are asking for behaviors? Then with or
without a pesky global property (which I wouldn't recommend) we could have
the issue settled and get on with more important and interesting things. I
don't think people need so urgently to be saved from the dangers of polling
functions--why not warn them about hydrogenated oils?

Anyway, I *do* see the sense in what you're saying, but you *don't* see what
other people are getting at when they want to retain the function. You can
easily say that's because they're dense and wrong, but as I said, there's a
subjective issue in the middle and you have to have objectivity and certain
skills in looking at arguments and the process of thinking and debating to
be able to see this step in the reasoning involved!

BTW, the mouse is one thing, but I think there are some situations where the
mouseLoc is necessary or at least very practical. When I have time to make a
test card with some things I've noticed, I will see if this is true and if
so, send you the scripts. If not, I truly apologize for my presumptions, but
if I'm right, what will you say?

Curry Kenworthy


_______________________________________________
improve-revolution mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/improve-revolution

Reply via email to