Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: revision control for documents (was plug-in foo)

[Thomas Zander]

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On Tuesday 23 December 2003 03:07, Tom Lord wrote:
> "Not lying to users" meant not trying to create "false abstractions".
Good advice; something I use in GUIs I create as much as I can.
...
> The alternative to lying to users is "presenting the truth to the
> user" -- e.g., letting them know that there's a markup language;

Well, no. That is the silly-quick-fix solution.
The real solution is to recognize that the chosen solution fails and you need 
a better solution.
Notice that for abstractions like a "Desktop" this is naturally not true, 
those are just poor abstractions.
What you should do in this example is put in an intermediate 'layer' that is 
capable of all things the GUI is (so you'r not lying to the user).
Then you export it to the markup language afterwards.
The point being; if you are lying to the user changes are your application 
should be upgraded to user expectations.

> If you're presenting the truth to the user, then patch(1) and diff(3)
> output are quite reasonable things to present.

Following my example above; you can use the output of diff and read it into 
this intermediate layer which is very capable of showing the real info to the 
user.

> MSFT has done a good job of lying -- and shaping reality to conform to
> their lie.   For quite a few years now, the emphasis in free software
> projects aimed at providing "office productivity software" has been to
> prove, "hey, man, we can lie just as well as MSFT."

The problem with that conclusion is that the lie you use in this paragraph has 
nothing to do with the lies in the rest of the email. And next to that, as 
the world has been addicted to WPs for many years (which I doubt has anything 
to do with any deception MS would have create). The OSs tools just reflect 
real-world questions.  If the questions are false; it is not up to OSs to 
correct those.
Or put in another way; if enough people feel an itch...

- -- 
Thomas Zander
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