distrowatch comment: "Ubuntu Breezy Badger - is it too dumbed down? "

[Eric Dunbar]

On 12/30/05, Anders Karlsson <trudheim at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/30/05, Scott <angrykeyboarder at angrykeyboarder.com> wrote:
> > Eric Dunbar wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > > Every developer HAS TO USE the "we know what's good for users and they
> > > don't" approach.
> >
> > How odd.
> > >
> > > WITHOUT IT, YOU CANNOT WRITE SOFTWARE FOR OTHERS!!!
> >
> > And why not?
>
> Let's pretend you are going to write a spreadsheet application Scott..
> Just for arguments sake yeah? Let's for arguments sake say that you
> include a ROUND() function in your application, because it makes sense
> and it is a rather handy function after all. You are at that moment
> making assumptions about your users (if you intend for anyone else
> ever to use that spreadsheet application that is). You are at that
> very moment saying "I know what is good for my users" - whether you
> like it or not.

<snip>

> Out of interest, how would you go about writing software if you did
> not make assumptions about how potential users would use the software?

You'd give the user a soldering iron, a furnace, a pile of silicates
and various plastics and tell them to design their own word processor
from first principles (i.e. build the chips, build the computer, etc
;-). ;-P ;-P ;-P

Or... (if you were willing to accept some assumptions about how a
potential user would use the software... i.e. programming language,
CPU and OS were acceptable "limitations")... give them a C++ manual
and tell them to write their word processor from scratch ;-)

Enough silliness for the morn.

Eric.