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Rich Freeman posted on Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:12:37 -0400 as excerpted: |
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> This whole thing seems best chalked up to well-intending people making |
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> omissions (maybe), and the virtue of competent developers who don't just |
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> blindly follow the spec when it doesn't make sense. |
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Actually, much as it's widely agreed there's value in porting an app to |
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at least one other arch even if there's not enough potential users there |
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to justify it directly, because it helps to root out and get bugs fixed |
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that would never be found otherwise, I'd say the same applies here: |
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There's value in someone being just contrarian enough to purposefully |
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look for the strangest or most illogical read of a spec and (initially) |
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implement it that way, in ordered to root out and get the bugs in the |
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spec fixed. That said... |
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> Sure, fix the spec, but it makes more sense to make this retroactive |
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> unless somebody can really point to something that this breaks. |
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Agreed. Once the bug has been demonstrated and a fix to the spec is in |
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process, the value of a contrarian read of the existing spec has been |
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exploited and there's no longer any value in it. Just fix it (both the |
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spec and the contrarian implementations), as soon as possible (and |
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possibly retroactively for the spec), which given the nature of |
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specifications and the bureaucracy which surrounds them, will by |
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definition tend to be sooner for the implementation than for the spec, a |
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fix for which will take its time to work thru the bureaucracy. |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |