Re: tlug: Linux Users Old and New (was: High-end vs Low-end Linu

[Jim Schweizer <schweiz@example.com>]

Hi all,

On 29-Sep-98 Jonathan Byrne - 3Web wrote:
>>> I've also written that I think tools emphasizing ease-of-use often
>>> lead to technically poor output, at least when coupled with the
>>> "instant gratification" of WYSIWYG, but that's an orthogonal issue to
>>> those of "community." 
>>
>>Again, agreed.
> 
> Agreed that it's orthoganal or agreed that ease-of-use tools encourage a poor
> end product?  If it's the second one, I don't buy into that, for two reasons.

When I read what Steve T. said, I agreed. I was thinking more along the lines
of the Assembly VS Visual Basic output argment that I've often read about.
Assembly requires a far greater understanding of how the computer really works,
but VB allows coders to write applications without that degree of understanding.

>One is just that a person who doesn't know jack <snip>

regardless of the tool will almost always do a poor job. The ease-of-use issue
is that the person is never forced to become a craftsman and intimately learn
how her tools work.

>Reason number two is that the very worst HTML I've ever seen - <snip> -
>was hand coded.

Actually, IMHO these are the same reasons. Programming (and I'm a rotten
programmer) is like many things - a little bit art, some inspiration and a lot
of grunt work. Unless you're gifted, it takes years of study to produce
technically superior output. Fortunately, many of the people working on Linux
are gifted.

What the Linux programmers haven't done is take short cuts of the kind
available to VB programmers - that is up 'till now. The head long willy-nilly
rush to become commercial and 'get the product out the door' as Red Hat is
often accused of on this list, will only hurt Linux in the long run.

Wow, did I write that?

Regards,

Jim S.
(sticking his non-programmer nose where it probably doesn't belong ;-)

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