[tex-live] Ruby interpreter for Windows in the TeXLive distribution?

Fabrice Popineau Fabrice.Popineau at supelec.fr
Fri Jun 30 21:29:36 CEST 2006


* Zdenek Wagner <wagner at cesnet.cz> writes:

    > You've hit the greatest problem of Windows, the computer pretends
    > to be cleverer than a user.

Pardon me but I  think you definitely  missed the point  and this is yet
another damn assertion about Windows/Microsoft (and to some extent, that
applied to Apple years ago).

You have hit the greatest problem of computer scientists. They tend to
think that the computer should force his discipline upon the
user. Because it is the way they learn how to use (read program, hey
they are computer scientists) computers. And this what you did with
this young lady.

Mass market need computers for which the user has no effort to
provide. Tasks people need should be accessible easily, quickly,
effortlessly in a way that seems unthinkable to (some) computer
scientists. If I believe in something that is stable wrt humankind, it
is that people will always chose the solution that requires the less
effort. People on this list are certainly not of this kind.

You may not agree on this point, but on a huge scale, I bet that it is
always the solution requiring the less effort from the user that will
win. If you expect your user to understand actually what is happening,
or to learn some exotic language, then you will lose.

    > It would be even better if Microsoft understood that most people
    > have usable brains. I taught one young lady to use computers, even

Do you really think ? Most people are watching football players on tv.

-- 
Fabrice


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