[mythtv-users] "broken" as a synonym for "not as I expected." WAS: Re: mythvideo sort order

[Anthony Giggins]

On 29 June 2011 00:10, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Daniel Kristjansson" <danielk at cuymedia.net>
>
> > On Tue, 2011-06-28 at 16:06 +1000, Julius Roberts wrote:
> > > My point in raising this is that it is all well and good to have
> > > developed complicated software for some fantastic task, but if it
> > > doesn't work the way people might usually expect it to, then that in
> > > my mind is it's not reasonable to blame the user for their poor
> > > perception of the issue. There's complicated, and then there's just
> > > plain poorly executed.
> >
> > All tools fail to work the way someone expects them too. When a
> > developer replies to a complaint with "it's working as designed"
> > that doesn't necessarily imply that the design is correct, but
> > it puts the onus on the complainant to convince others that the
> > way they think it should work is superior*. And if they are not
> > developers or paying someone who is, then they additionally need
> > to convince someone else to make it happen.
>
> That "all tools fail to work the way *someone* expects them to" -- IE:
> that there can always be found someone who will be stonkered by the
> present design -- is true, but not really a counter-argument to any
> *specific* accusation that a design point violates the Principle of Least
> Astonishment.
>
> Not, Daniel, as you note, that that carries any water in the FOSS
> community -- which has always been, IME, one of the weaknesses of the
> FOSS community.  Having done both programming and analysis/design for
> many years, I can testify that some of the best coders on the planet
> cannot design their way out of a paper bag.  And there are some good
> designers who can't code very well, too.
>
> Architecture and contracting are two separate disciplines when people
> are getting paid to do them, but, you see, design is widely viewed as
> "the fun part", so precisely the people that I think FOSS projects need:
> designers, who may not be good coders -- are the people who get left by
> the side of the road; FOSS is not a "meritocracy"... it's a "code-ocracy".
> If you can't write it yourself, you'd better be a *damned* good
> salesperson.
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
> --
>
> I expect my shovel to dig its self, therefore it doesn't work the way I
expect :(

Anthony
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