Hello Red Herring

Nick Harring writes:

> This whole argument is ridiculous.

Correct.  So far I havw seen only one person post a sensible response,
You are NOT that person...

> The correctness of design doesn't really rely on what some random users 
> first guess of how it should work would be,

You have NO understanding of ergonomics.  A correct design anticipates
what random users would first guess.  This is NOTHING to do with what
happens at a technical level and everything to do with the user interface.
If software does not work how MOST people expect it to then it is BAD
software.

> because they're wrong to be guessing when man pages are 
> supplied.

Sigh.  So many people of LIMITED INTELLIGENCE have missed the point.
It's not what the man pages say, it's not how it works, it's not how
some masochistic geek who codes it thinks it ought to work, it's how the
USERS want it to work.  I don't give a crap how you, as a geek, think it
ought to work. As a USER (I also happen to be a geek, but one who
understands ergonomics) I know how I would like it to work.  Is that
so hard for you to comprehend?  Obviously it is.

And hey, the change I suggested meant that BOTH OF US could be happy.  The
jean-creeaming changes that Tom suggested means that not only can BOTH OF
US be happy but that it is automatic.  It works how you want and it works
how I want. But you don't want me to be happy...

Why is it that so many people resent a change that Tom can do in his
sleep and which has no adverse affects on anyone?    Give me a RATIONAL,
LOGICAL argument and I will agree with you. Come up with crap like that
and I will flame you to hell and back. 
 
> The One Correct Way of using new software in unix is to read 
> the docs first.

Bollocks.  If you want Unix to remain a minority platform then that's
the way to go.  If you want Unix to displace Windoze then you make it
easy for idiots to configure and use.

> However, I must agree with many others that silently doing the right
> thing without changing the docs is a bad, bad idea. 

Gimme a clue here...

Is doing the right thing a bad idea???

Is having relatively undocumented features that the intelligentsia can use
a bad thing?

Is a software utility, that no matter which order you specify its two
mandatory arguments still does the right thing a bad idea?

> I happen to not care about the order of the arguments, however I do very 
> much care that the documentation stay accurate for any future versions 
> of vpopmail.

Please explain to us all how the documentation failing to mention
that you can specify "real alias" as well as "alias real" will cause
you, or anyone else, a problem.  Give it your best shot...

-- 
Paul Allen
Softflare Support


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