> It's completely okay that they wrote this code, as a "version 0.2". But there's no excuse for presenting it as finished code, with reasonable semantics. It's not hyperbole to say that.
Am I missing something, or are you just saying "Worse is Worse"?
The "excuse" is that this way (arguably, perhaps) governed the history of Unix development, well before there was even a standard.
What I've been attempting to get people (especially ones with the seemingly most strenuous invectives toward the design) is to perform the thought experiment of placing themselves in the "shoes" of the designers, both by trying to imagine being in that past and, much harder, actually believing in that philosophy.
I believe that will go much farther in increasing understand and, to borrow from the HN guidelines, gratify intellectual curiosity, than arguing against strawmen (or just non-existent proponents) of design goodness.
> Am I missing something, or are you just saying "Worse is Worse"?
No, I'm not. It's fine that they made that code, and were using it.
But different situations have different requirements.
I'm not objecting to the design work at all.
I'm objecting to the idea of calling it "ready to standardize". This is a presentation problem, not a development problem. It was half-baked, and shouldn't have been set in stone until it was fully baked.
> I'm objecting to the idea of calling it "ready to standardize".
Oh, indeed, that's a distinctly different topic than has been focused on in the rest of the thread. The upthread indictment of the process is quite on point.
It's also a wide topic with a wide variety of involved parties, worthy of its own thread, off of a blog post.
[...]
> It's completely okay that they wrote this code, as a "version 0.2". But there's no excuse for presenting it as finished code, with reasonable semantics. It's not hyperbole to say that.
Am I missing something, or are you just saying "Worse is Worse"?
The "excuse" is that this way (arguably, perhaps) governed the history of Unix development, well before there was even a standard.
What I've been attempting to get people (especially ones with the seemingly most strenuous invectives toward the design) is to perform the thought experiment of placing themselves in the "shoes" of the designers, both by trying to imagine being in that past and, much harder, actually believing in that philosophy.
I believe that will go much farther in increasing understand and, to borrow from the HN guidelines, gratify intellectual curiosity, than arguing against strawmen (or just non-existent proponents) of design goodness.