"List Server" to Layman and Computer Expert

[Colin Law]

2009/7/26 Piper <pay_the_piper at shaw.ca>:
>
> What we seem to have here is a communication/definitional problem. If I go
> to my garage with a problem, I express it in layman's terms. I may not use
> words like motor and engine the same way as people in auto engineering and I
> may describe a motor/engine sound like "knocking" which the engineer
> recognizes in different terms.
>

To continue the analogy, what we have here is that you have the
apparently simple (to a layman) requirement that you would like your
car made into a boat, to you it appears simply that you have to stick
a propeller on the back so you can float off into the wild blue
yonder.  The mechanic will explain patiently that it is not as simple
as that.  He will explain that cars and boats are fundamentally
different and it is not practical to convert a car into a boat.
Unfortunately you will not believe him and will keep on and on telling
him that it is very simple and that all that is necessary is to stick
on a propeller.  Eventually he will probably hit you with a
crankshaft, if he does not loose the will to live first.

Colin