From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/59989 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan BRASLAU Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: nomarking function in MKIV Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:18 +0200 Organization: CEA DSM-IRAMIS-SPEC Message-ID: <201007021307.18968.alan.braslau@cea.fr> References: <87iq516cjj.fsf@devereux.me.uk> <201007012059.27547.alan.braslau@cea.fr> <9DD0392C-7665-44E2-A007-FB39EF7614BD@uni-bonn.de> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1278068890 19626 80.91.229.12 (2 Jul 2010 11:08:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:08:10 +0000 (UTC) Cc: "Thomas A. Schmitz" To: ntg-context@ntg.nl Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Jul 02 13:08:08 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([195.12.62.10]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OUe6J-0001Gp-SY for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:08:07 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAE6FC9B49; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:08:07 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id QeWguXKbZSlY; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:08:07 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9CF5FC9B92; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:36 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2EFBCC9B7A for ; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:35 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id TPWzU-LIXRLG for ; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:32 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from cirse-out.extra.cea.fr (cirse-out.extra.cea.fr [132.166.172.106]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id B632BC9B66 for ; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:32 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from epeire2.extra.cea.fr (epeire2.extra.cea.fr [132.167.198.32]) by cirse.extra.cea.fr (8.14.2/8.14.2/CEAnet-Internet-out-2.0) with ESMTP id o62B7WsB002018 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:32 +0200 Original-Received: from orpin2.extra.cea.fr (orpin2.extra.cea.fr [132.167.198.5]) by epeire2.extra.cea.fr (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o62B7WAN019194; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:32 +0200 (envelope-from alan.braslau@cea.fr) Original-Received: from iram-ha-003840.localnet (iram-ha-003840.extra.cea.fr [132.166.25.152]) by orpin2.extra.cea.fr (8.13.8/8.13.8/CEAnet-Intranet-out-1.1) with ESMTP id o62B7WIU021551; Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:07:32 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.3 (Linux/2.6.32; KDE/4.4.4; x86_64; ; ) In-Reply-To: <9DD0392C-7665-44E2-A007-FB39EF7614BD@uni-bonn.de> X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:59989 Archived-At: On Friday 02 July 2010 10:18:23 Thomas A. Schmitz wrote: > = > It all depends on what you call "robustness." I'm a classicist, not a > computer scientist or programmer, so I view software only from a user's > perspective. But here's what I think about this: a system is robust when > it behaves in a predictable and consistent manner. Maybe it's because I > have begun writing some of my stuff in xml, or maybe it's because I'm an > anal-retentive guy by nature, but I find the tree image of documents > compelling: everything has to be part of a branch. And I read the examples > you provide as proving me right: if a program asks "how many cycles?" and > the user input is "yes," the only consistent and predictable behavior is > throwing an error and reporting it to the user - "integer number expected" > or some such. Processing "yes" will not allow the user to learn how to do > this right. Everything else ("The program still had to handle this > correctly") is just going to leave the user at the mercy of what someone > somewhere defined for her/him. I am a scientist, not a programmer (or computer scientist). We tend to be creative and act unpredictably. This leads to progress and innovation. > Moreover: maybe as a classicist, I find it natural to look at documents in > the perspective of the "longue dur=E9e" - after all, we handle stuff that > has been around for several millennia. Which means I see my TeX or > whatever file not primarily as an instruction to typeset stuff in a > certain way, but as a container to preserve information. Which means: > ideally, I want my documents so well-structured that someone in the year > 3010 will be able to extract the same information from them. The better > they are structured, the more they respect a consistent model, the better > the chances that this will happen. > ... > Which means you should think of your document as structured > information, not as instructions for a certain device. Again, the better > the document is structured, the more independent and reliable its > transmission will be. Redundancy ``... is the only thing which makes it possible to write a text = which is longer than, say, ten pages. In other words, a language which has = maximum compression would actually be completely unsuited to conveying = information beyond a certain degree of complexity, because you could never = find = out whether a text is right or wrong. And this is a question of principle. = It = follows, therefore, that the complexity of the medium in which you work has = something to do with redundancy.'' (Shannon 1949) I am researching (amongst other things) the structure of DNA. The information that it carries has survived much longer than the 1000 years between 2010 and 3010... Alan P.S. my favorite editor is vi - as I do make mistakes! ___________________________________________________________________________= ________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to t= he Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-cont= ext webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________= ________