From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Marcin Borkowski Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Do we want more choice? (was Bookmark the end of file?) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:53:12 +0200 Message-ID: <87y4lwea78.fsf@mbork.pl> References: <87vbh8hlns.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> <1b751175-4544-44e7-bbcd-d5a01bf92624@default> <39b824d1-e8d2-4bf7-a983-c6cefff83dad@googlegroups.com> <291260f3-daa1-4ab4-8840-2ee9b9f164ec@default> <20150413071741.GA22660@tuxteam.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1428911690 16962 80.91.229.3 (13 Apr 2015 07:54:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 07:54:50 +0000 (UTC) To: Drew Adams , Rusi , help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 13 09:54:40 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1YhZCX-0002HL-VG for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:54:38 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47820 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YhZCX-0008PZ-8B for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:54:37 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:42452) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YhZBQ-0008Cu-UU for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:53:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YhZBK-0003Ze-3S for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:53:28 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.mojserwer.eu ([195.110.48.8]:53607) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YhZBJ-0003YR-TX for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:53:22 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.mojserwer.eu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 745B34F6088; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:53:19 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at mail.mojserwer.eu Original-Received: from mail.mojserwer.eu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mail.mojserwer.eu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id wkxbhKALSIXF; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:53:17 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (117-116.echostar.pl [213.156.117.116]) by mail.mojserwer.eu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 129D04F6087; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:53:17 +0200 (CEST) In-reply-to: <20150413071741.GA22660@tuxteam.de> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 195.110.48.8 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103685 Archived-At: On 2015-04-13, at 09:17, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote: >> "A general realization." "Nowadays." Ooooh. Can't argue with that. >> >> Consideration of one particular choice has now been successfully >> diverted toward vacuous generalizations about choice in general - >> platitudes of Polonius. Too bad. > > I must say that I agree strongly with this point of view. > > More choice is *always* better. The hard part is presenting this > choice to the user in a way it doesn't overwhelm her/him. Hm. Don't want to sound trollish, but as a mathematician I'm strongly against using the general quantifier where it doesn't belong. So, not *always*, but often. (A good source of counterexamples is ethics. I wouldn't consider giving my child -- or myself, for that matter -- giving more choice wrt to e.g. drugs a good thing.) > I have the strong suspicion that the "less choice is good" movement > we are seeing stems from being too lazy (or at a loss) wrt thinking > hard about how to guide the user through a rich set of choices. The > latter would be, in my view, the right thing to do. +1. Best, -- Marcin Borkowski http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science Adam Mickiewicz University