Autocoding >Re: "Introduction to Ethics",

[Christopher Browne]

"Timothy Rue" <threeseas at earthlink.net> writes:
> On 23-Jan-02 17:51:51 ---name removed until ok'd for newgroups -- wrote:
> >"Timothy Rue" <threeseas at earthlink.net> writes:

> >> I know enough to know that I know more than I need to know, to
> >> know the project I presented is a valid one.

> >Autocoding is a nice dream, but it's a little like world peace.
> >It's not just a matter of saying "here's a great idea, do this".

> World peace is a lot closer than many realize and the more that do
> realize, the closer it gets.
> http://www.osearth.com/resources/wwwproject/

[Vast array of wishful thinking omitted.]

The way that free software projects succeed is when people release
actual software that _works_.  It doesn't forcibly have to work
_well_; it doesn't have to be as fully featured as it might, someday,
become.

In contrast, it is blatantly obvious that projects that merely involve
people waving their hands, "visualizing whirled peas," never amount to
_anything_.

Take a quick look at <http://sourceforge.net/>  

There are _vast numbers_ of projects that have been "started" where
someone got wishful and decided to start "designing something" in the
hopes that other people would come along and actually do the work of
making it useful.  

There are probably 10,000 such projects that will be forever ignored,
in spite of the fact that each involves high aspirations for success.

If you can't release a preliminary _functional_ "autocoder," then I
don't think it's going far to say that there's no reason why _anybody_
should feel compelled to listen to you.  

And the best you can expect, without some _working code_, is for
people to say "that's nice" and go on to the _real_ things they have
to do.

People may be polite, in the beginning; if you are persistent in
wasting their time on your pipe dream, they will get less polite as
they tell you to go away.
-- 
(reverse (concatenate 'string "moc.adanac@" "enworbbc"))
http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/emacs.html
"...Unix, MS-DOS, and Windows NT (also known as the Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly)."  -- Matt Welsh