Fortran

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 4:05 AM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
> For the most part cars are very similar, yet in some circumstances (such as
> a vehicle in front of you suddenly stopping) the exact details (such as the
> precise location and size and shape of the brake pedal) become
> excruciatingly important (having your foot stomp the floor just to the right
> of the current break pedal, because that's where the brake was in your last
> vehicle, is not going to help here).

Some things are more standardized than others. A piano keyboard is
incredibly standard, to make it possible to play without having to
look at your fingers (even when jumping your hands around, which
doesn't happen as much on a computer keyboard); mobile phones are
anything but, so you really need to get to know your particular phone
(there may or may not even be brand similarities). But that's really
tangential to the question of using something without gaining any
skill in it; it's more a matter of how well skill gained on one device
in a class translates to other devices in that class.

ChrisA