Autocoding project proposal.

[phil hunt]

On Sat, 26 Jan 2002 14:15:21 GMT, Timothy Rue <threeseas at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>I would suggest the following:
>
>>(1) take the crap out of your website, i.e. the javaScript, the black
>>background, the multicoloured text. Use a more restrained design.
>
>you don't like Javascript? Then use the decafe version link at the top
>of the page. Dumb thing the web page industry, making up foolish things
>like colored text and all....

You asked for my advice; If you don't like the advice given, that's up
to you.

>>(2) describe your project so that people can more easily understand it.
>>You should aim to do this an a paragraph or three; any longer is too
>>long.
>
>Show me this. 

How can I write a summary of something i don't understand? Obviously
I cannot. Instead I will point you to something I have written that
I consider easy to understand (YMMV -- if so btell me):

<http://www.vision25.demon.co.uk/oss/herbivore/intro.html>

Particularly the example given in the coloured box:



Here's an example, to illustrate how Herbivore will work:

Alice and Bob both use herbivore-compliant MUAs. Alice sends a message to Bob (it's 
the first time they've emailed each other). The message is send as plain text, but the 
herbivore subsystem inserts some extra headers, which say that Alice's MUA is 
herbivore-aware, and what Alice's GPG public key is. 

Bob's MUA reads the email. The Herbivore subsystem in the MUA notes that Alice's email 
is from a Herbivore-aware client, and remembers Alice's public key. 

Bob decides to reply to Alice's message. He composes his reply as normal, and presses 
SEND. The Herbivore subsystem in Bob's MUA automatically encrypts the email with 
Alice's public key, before sending it to her. 

When Alice's MUA receives the message, it is automatically decoded (using Alice's 
private key). Alice then sees on her screen the message that Bob sent her. 



>Give me an example. 

See above.

>You see I have done this before, even
>getting it down to 20 words or less for those who wanted it that way.
>Guess what? They then complained it did describe enough.

I think you missed a "not" out of that sentence.

>>(3) learn better coding techniques. 500 lines in one function is not
>>good. Write lots of Python code -- learning programming is like learning
>>anything else, you have to practise to get good at it.
>
>Is there something you fail to understand why I picked autocoding as a
>target of how this tool can be used?

Yes. I fail to understand a lot about your project, it seems.

>>(4) Don't be obsessed with getting others to help you. Plan to do
>>the work yourself if need be.
>
>Then there is the other problem, getting others to understand how to use
>it 

How can they use it if it hasn't been written?

Once it has been written, if people still have difficulty learning to use 
it, then it isn't the conceptual breakthrough you claim, is it?

>You do know the concept of zero, '0', nothing having a value, had been an
>established concept of the hindu long before it was included with the
>arabic nine digits. And the final ten digit numbering system took
>something like 300 years to adopt by the majority into common use, over
>the far more limited roman numeral system.

Here we go again.

-- 
===== Philip Hunt ===== philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk =====
One OS to rule them all, one OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Redmond, where the Shadows lie.