Two new Zippy'ism contributions

Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Andrew M. Scott]

What's the best way for folks to contribute to the new Zippy'isms?

Here's two:

1. This one's based on my own experience with a new (to me) frozen vegetable:

"How LONG to heat the vegetables? The package says COOK UNTIL DONE."

2. Here's another I captured from my middle son, last fall:

"He's got a solid FOOT AND A HALF grounded in reality."

Andy Scott

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Miles Bader]

"Andrew M. Scott" <amscott1@sedona.ch.intel.com> writes:
> "How LONG to heat the vegetables? The package says COOK UNTIL DONE."
> "He's got a solid FOOT AND A HALF grounded in reality."

Maybe it sounds harsh, but the originals are often pretty inspired,
and it's not that easy to quickly churn outs stuff that's equally good;
if we distribute a file filled with randomly solicited replacements, I
expect the result will disappoint those people who use yow.

I'm not sure whether that's better or worse than the command simply
ceasing to work...

-Miles
-- 
"1971 pickup truck; will trade for guns"

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Randal L. Schwartz]

>>>>> "Miles" == Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com> writes:

Miles> I'm not sure whether that's better or worse than the command simply
Miles> ceasing to work...

It will probably inspire people to ask "WTF".  The front of the file should
make clear what the history of the file has been, including the recent action,
and that the format of the file hasn't changed, only the content.

The astute will know how to take it from there.

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
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RE: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Drew Adams]

    Maybe it sounds harsh, but the originals are often pretty inspired,
    and it's not that easy to quickly churn outs stuff that's equally good;
    if we distribute a file filled with randomly solicited replacements, I
    expect the result will disappoint those people who use yow.

I agree with Miles on this. Of course the original quotations are inspired -
they're from Zippy!

Better to provide a hollow yow structure with, perhaps with one good line
(whether  pseudozippyism or from today's news), than to churn out a long
list of mechanical pseudononsense.

    I'm not sure whether that's better or worse than the command simply
    ceasing to work...

We should keep the command - or at least its infrastructure, but replace the
quotations file with an empty file or a sample one-liner. The point is not
to replace Zippy but to show how to use yow.

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Richard Stallman]

    Maybe it sounds harsh, but the originals are often pretty inspired,
    and it's not that easy to quickly churn outs stuff that's equally good;
    if we distribute a file filled with randomly solicited replacements, I
    expect the result will disappoint those people who use yow.

How about if the people who want to replace it set themselves up as a
committee to choose the best proposals.  They can make another mailing
list; then we won't discuss it further on this list.

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     Maybe it sounds harsh, but the originals are often pretty inspired,
>     and it's not that easy to quickly churn outs stuff that's equally good;
>     if we distribute a file filled with randomly solicited replacements, I
>     expect the result will disappoint those people who use yow.
>
> How about if the people who want to replace it set themselves up as a
> committee to choose the best proposals.  They can make another mailing
> list; then we won't discuss it further on this list.

Any old pinhead fan can just copy the yow.lines file from their existing
emacs installation into emacs 22.  New users will _not_ miss it.  So
why are we discussing this issue.

We need to fix the text in the stripped yow.lines, as it no longer 
consists of any Zippy quotations:

Current text reads:

A data base Zippy the pinhead might love.
Everything up to the first ascii \000 (`null') character is a comment.
The file consists of Zippy quotations (from various comic books and
 strips by Bill Griffith) followed by a null character.
 Newline characters following a quotation are ignored and are present
 only for readability.
Have FUN!


I suggest this text instead:

This is the data base for the yow.el package.
It used to contain Zippy quotations (from various comic books and strips
by Bill Griffith), but these have been removed due to legal concerns.

Everything up to the first ascii \000 (`null') character is a comment.
The file should consist of blocks of text, each followed by a null character.
Newline characters following a null character are ignored and are present
only for readability.


-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Randal L. Schwartz]

>>>>> "Kim" == Kim F Storm <storm@cua.dk> writes:

Kim> It used to contain Zippy quotations (from various comic books and strips
Kim> by Bill Griffith), but these have been removed due to legal concerns.

replace "used to contain" (awkward) with "formerly contained"

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Jay Belanger]

storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:

> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
...
>> How about if the people who want to replace it set themselves up as a
>> committee to choose the best proposals.  They can make another mailing
>> list; then we won't discuss it further on this list.
>
> Any old pinhead fan can just copy the yow.lines file from their existing
> emacs installation into emacs 22.  New users will _not_ miss it.

Because they won't know about it; but they will miss out on a little
bit of texture.  (Which, of course, is better than replacing it with
something not very good.)

If the above mentioned committee does get formed 
(hmmm... Emacs needs a magic eight ball feature:
  M-x shake-eight-ball
  Question:  Will the committee be formed?
  *FLASH*
  *FLASH*
  *FLASH*
  Answer: It remains to be seen.)
email me (off-list, of course).  I don't know how much help I'd be (I
have a tin Zippy ear --- I thought some of the contributions were
pretty good), but I'd do what I can.

Jay

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Kim F. Storm]

Jay Belanger <belanger@truman.edu> writes:

> storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:
>
>> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
> ...
>>> How about if the people who want to replace it set themselves up as a
>>> committee to choose the best proposals.  They can make another mailing
>>> list; then we won't discuss it further on this list.
>>
>> Any old pinhead fan can just copy the yow.lines file from their existing
>> emacs installation into emacs 22.  New users will _not_ miss it.
>
> Because they won't know about it; 

Exactly!

>                                   but they will miss out on a little
> bit of texture.  (Which, of course, is better than replacing it with
> something not very good.)

As the new quotations would be free, they are _per definition_ better!

Let's greate gnow.el (from yow.el) and gnow.lines (with a few silly
remarks to start with), and then gmove yow.el and yow.lines to
obsolete/.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Miles Bader]

storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:
> As the new quotations would be free, they are _per definition_ better!
>
> Let's greate gnow.el (from yow.el) and gnow.lines (with a few silly
> remarks to start with), and then gmove yow.el and yow.lines to
> obsolete/.

Let's not.

-miles

-- 
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.  -- Steven Wright

Re: Two new Zippy'ism contributions

[Richard Stallman]

    > Let's greate gnow.el (from yow.el) and gnow.lines (with a few silly
    > remarks to start with), and then gmove yow.el and yow.lines to
    > obsolete/.

I agree that there is no reason to rename the files; it would only
cause trouble.