Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

[forsyth]

>> > is it not your years of experience as a computer administrator that wrote
>> > those scripts

>> And others don't have that experience to pass along to new users? Excuse
>> me but Plan 9 is what 12+ years old and there aren't any significant
>> automation efforts? Hmmmmm.....

i wonder whether a `scripted' approach to installation and
configuration of something as complex as a distributed operating
system with three different components to configure, on several
physical machines simultaneously, based on hardware that is
notoriously ill-specified and furthermore constantly changing, is
similar to the difficulty of trying to speak a foreign language using only a
phrase book: it takes only one party or the other (usually the native
speaker) to step outside the precise scenario envisaged by the script's author
to leave the novice completely lost.

using a phrase book in a foreign country is of course more polite than just
starting out in one's native language, but in the end, you need to
know the underlying grammar of the other language and a reasonable vocabulary to
carry on even simple conversations.  even within their scope, phrase books
often sound stilted: that's one reason that reading phrases
out end-to-end as if they really were scripts is often so
funny.   there was a splendid programme on BBC Radio 3 a few years ago
that did just that, making little surreal stories out of them;
i think it was entitled ``My Postilion has been Struck by Lightning!''.
the effects were often similar to those i've experienced when attempting
to use ./configure scripts, let alone o/s installation.

Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

[Boyd Roberts]

<forsyth@vitanuova.com> a crit dans le message news:
20010410135514.3818819AEF@mail.cse.psu.edu...
> using a phrase book in a foreign country is of course more polite than
just
> starting out in one's native language, but in the end, you need to
> know the underlying grammar of the other language and a reasonable
vocabulary to
> carry on even simple conversations.

ahh bon?  je savais pas.  pauvre con que je suis

:)

Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

[George Michaelson]

  <forsyth@vitanuova.com> a crit dans le message news:
  20010410135514.3818819AEF@mail.cse.psu.edu...
  > using a phrase book in a foreign country is of course more polite than
  just
  > starting out in one's native language, but in the end, you need to
  > know the underlying grammar of the other language and a reasonable
  vocabulary to
  > carry on even simple conversations.

  ahh bon?  je savais pas.  pauvre con que je suis

 > From:    Boyd Roberts <boyd@insultant.net>

How 'quaint' (check that in a good dictionary)

We all should recall a consultant is a cunt with an insult interpolated...

cheers
	-George

--
George Michaelson         |  DSTC Pty Ltd
Email: ggm@dstc.edu.au    |  University of Qld 4072
Phone: +61 7 3365 4310    |  Australia
  Fax: +61 7 3365 4311    |  http://www.dstc.edu.au

Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

[Boyd Roberts]

"George Michaelson" <ggm@dstc.edu.au> a crit dans le message news:
14283.986981580@dstc.edu.au...
>
>   <forsyth@vitanuova.com> a crit dans le message news:
>   20010410135514.3818819AEF@mail.cse.psu.edu...
>   > using a phrase book in a foreign country is of course more polite than
>   just
>   > starting out in one's native language, but in the end, you need to
>   > know the underlying grammar of the other language and a reasonable
>   vocabulary to
>   > carry on even simple conversations.
>
>   ahh bon?  je savais pas.  pauvre con que je suis
>
>  > From:    Boyd Roberts <boyd@insultant.net>
>
> How 'quaint' (check that in a good dictionary)
>
> We all should recall a consultant is a cunt with an insult interpolated...


thanks, you've just proven forsyth@vitanuova.com's point:

    pauvre [the poor thing] con [bastard]

    <empathy>
    the poor bastard
    </empathy>

'con' is _very_ complicated.  in the south they use it very
differently to how they use in paris.

for bonus points, try the phrase:

    ...  la con

references: ~10 years in france and le dictionaire LAROUSSE.

but what would i know about it?

--
Boyd Roberts        http://www.insultant.net        boyd@insultant.net

What do you know about France, Major?  You're from goddamn New Jersey.

    -- Lt. Colonel Kilgore

Re: [9fans] Re: scripting installation

[Scott Schwartz]

Friends, please keep the discussion unheated, and on topic.