On Mon, 2005-12-19 at 11:46 -0800, Todd Tidwell wrote: > Lastly, being a software developer myself for 15 years, I know that all > software benefits the most by making it accessible for the broadest range of > users. The easy, simple, correct way to do that is to allow options and to > allow multiple configurations.
This is the exact attitude that has led to tens of pages of configuration options in Myth. I am all for making software accessible to the broadest range of users. But I feel that should be accomplished by adhering to a sort of Pareto principle: a majority of the users, say 80%, are perfectly happy with a limited set of functionality. Those users should not be forced to twiddle a lot of knobs to get the software to do the few simple things they need. The developer can cater to the remaining 20% of power users but must strive not to let power features make the basic features harder to use. Most of the main developers and the regulars on this list are by definition in that power-user segment, so it's hard to step back and think about it from the perspective of a "normal" user. But the ease of use for the basic users is what will ultimately drive the long-term success of this project. I am at odds with Issac on a lot of things, but here I feel he's made the right decision by not adding another knob to tweak. Instead he's created a sane underlying design that does the right thing all by itself. -- Jeremy
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