Re: [9front] Re: TeX

[Ethan Grammatikidis <eekee57@fastmail.fm>]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018, at 9:04 AM, Julius Schmidt wrote:
> I have a feeling this is becoming the largest thread in the history of 
> this list, illustrating the principle that the importance of a change is 
> inversely proportional to the amount of discussion it creates.

I very very nearly added my bit yesterday. Glad I didn't.
Oh wait, I'm doing it now.

> 
> To hypocritically add my two cents:
> 
> To me the cryptic references to tex(1) have been one of those Plan 9 
> things you stumble upon when you first play with the OS, like the fact 
> that copying is called "snarf". It's confusing as hell but eventually you 
> just accept it as it is.

I briefly wanted to jump on the bandwagon of zealously removing all 
unnecessary confusion, "because necessary things are confusing 
enough already", but then I remembered that neither of these things 
ever confused me for very long at all. I don't see the problem.

These days, I try to fight urges to tidy up all the little things like this, 
because a lot of the tidying up does no real good and some of it is 
actually harmful.

> 
> Hence I'm opposed to removing the references.
> 
> If this issue had *any* technical relevance behind it, I might reconsider,
> but it does not.
> 
> Maybe we should just copy over emacs(1).
> 
> aiju
> 
> On Mon, 19 Feb 2018, sl@stanleylieber.com wrote:
> 
> >> do i need some form of entitlement to think?
> >
> > This has been debated in academia for decades.  To some extent,
> > privilege is the time and space to think.
> >
> > sl
> >


-- 
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. -- Chaucer