From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Anil Trivedi Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Software/HD ecology (was Re:...Bug in Emacs 21.3.50) Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:28:48 GMT Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <121220021431246381%anil@null.invalid> References: <041220020952400758%ajanta@no.spam> <56cfb0e3.0212041458.5eab182a@posting.google.com> <061220020416350201%ajanta@no.spam> <071220021155280606%ajanta@no.spam> <5ld6obj8il.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> <091220021652087216%ajanta@no.spam> <111220021101520860%ajanta@no.spam> <111220021253524057%ajanta@no.spam> <5l65u0i8zj.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> <111220022053507599%ajanta@no.spam> <5l1y4niayi.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> <121220021352537730%ajanta@no.spam> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1039725947 27239 80.91.224.249 (12 Dec 2002 20:45:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 20:45:47 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18MaDJ-00075B-00 for ; Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:45:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18Ma46-0001vy-04 for gnu-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:36:14 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.stealth.net!news.stealth.net!prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssrv26.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.text.tex,gnu.emacs.help Mail-Copies-To: nobody User-Agent: Thoth/1.5.10 (Carbon/OS X) Original-Lines: 25 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.37.190.240 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net Original-X-Trace: newssrv26.news.prodigy.com 1039728528 ST000 67.37.190.240 (Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:28:48 CST) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:28:48 CST X-UserInfo1: TSU[@I_AOHVORRXXZROVO]@@QB^FBL@MAHU^_BAMEH]TCDYG^WHEAE[YETZPIWWI[FCIZA^NBFXZ_D[BFNTCNVPDTNTKHWXKB@X^B_OCJLPZ@ET_O[G\XSG@E\G[ZKVLBL^CJINM@I_KVIOR\T_M_AW_M[_BWU_HFA_]@A_A^SGFAUDE_DFTMQPFWVW[QPJN Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu comp.sys.mac.apps:348742 gnu.emacs.help:108058 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:4590 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:4590 > At present the languages number in 10's but soon it may be 100's. I am > glad they are included. It is not clutter in the *distribution*, but it > becomes clutter in my *system* if I am stuck with it all with no tools > to safely select *my* language(s). > > An analogy might be to ship a fat distribution with binaries for every > cpu architecture and OS, and expect a user to keep everything because > it is a lot of work to separate them. That would be stupid. IMHO it > would be equally stupid to force people to keep 100's of languages they > have no prayer of learning/understanding/needing in one lifetime. I just wrote this elsewhere in another context (file attributes) but once more will do no harm: Unix was conceptualized for small systems and programs, where a user might know every file, and actually need it. Indeed, he either wrote it himself or copied from a friend he knew, and it was all in one language, whatever it happened to be. Now we have hundreds of thousands of files, know nothing about them, and routinely install packages that bring thousands of files and support more languages than the United Nations! All well and good, but as the system grows, the culture and the tools need to keep up too. Anil Trivedi