On 2016/02/13 6:52 AM, J Decker wrote: > On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 8:00 PM, Igor Tandetnik <igor at tandetnik.org> wrote: >> On 2/12/2016 10:44 PM, J Decker wrote: >>> >>> I expect it to take any string >> >> What is the basis of this expectation, other than wishful thinking? > I don't think expectation and wishful thinknig have anything to do > with each other.
That's exactly Igor's point (if I may). The two things are very different. You talk about expectation as if it were "what you yourself expect from the World" - which is akin to wishful thinking, while the normal understanding of "expectation" used in these contexts, is to find a result to be in line with how the documentation describes it would be. i.e - what is to be expected considering the workings of the system. > Though I expect standards would look at what the world really needs > and implement core functionality? That's hardly wishful thinking. > Well I guess it is, because I repeatedly have found myself > disappointed in the lack of considerations in standards. Yes there > are even unicode libraries for posix; but it's a huge expense for a > couple hundred lines of code. Very true. > and if it's something I needed for > interop, why doesn't everyone? This furthers the point: Your expectation isn't unreasonable at all from a needs-based or wishful point of view (I'm sure many of us wish it too) - but it is unreasonable to expect that which is not explicitly (or even implicitly) promised by the documentation/designer. The boiled-down difference being that your original statement, to paraphrase, said: "It doesn't work", while it should have said: "It doesn't work for me" - and so was rightly challenged. Cheers, Ryan
