[PD-dev] Re: Restructuring of CVS/externals

Chris McCormick chris at mccormick.cx
Sun Feb 5 21:38:59 CET 2006


On Sun, Feb 05, 2006 at 09:01:28PM -0500, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Chris McCormick wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 05, 2006 at 08:40:03PM -0500, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> > > On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Chris McCormick wrote:
> > > 
> > > > > To me, the most compelling reason to abbreviate the triggers is that it's
> > > > > the closest thing to making them disappear, among the things that I can do
> > > > > without looking like I'm coming straight from the jMaxlavian refugee
> > > > > ghetto.
> > > > 
> > > > Hi! Sometimes intelligent design achieves less optimal results than
> > > > evolution.
> > > 
> > > Sounds wise but ambiguous. What do you want to say?
> > 
> > I want to say that sometimes intelligently designing a system can
> > acheive a less optimal result than a system which is subjected to a
> > process of evolution.
> 
> Ok, now I'm lost. which part of what we were saying corresponds to what 
> you consider to be evolution, and which part corresponds to 
> creationism, and why do you say it.

All software is intelligently designed, but some of it is more subjected
to the process of evolution (in the market place) than others.

> BTW I'm not USAian enough to understand the subtleties of the 
> new phrase "intelligent design" vs the traditional term "creationism" so 
> please bear with me.

Me neither. I am not from the United States, and not interested in that
ridiculous debate.

> Now that I think of it, maybe you're saying that both options could be
> provided and we'd let people decide and let bad features die off. Maybe we
> would then find that not only people can't decide themselves, but bad
> features don't die off, and if perchance they do, they come back to haunt
> us.

Maybe. I am saying that software evolution in the Free market place
might be the most effective way to get better software. 'Bad' design
might help in not becoming trapped at local maxima. Let's not lop off
every inefficiency and quirk immediately because it's not 'good design' -
many people use [trigger]s successfully to produce great art and sounds,
and trigger might be the tip of an iceberg of new thinking. Perhaps Pd is
so successful because it has more character than other similar dataflow
environments.

Best,

Chris.

-------------------
chris at mccormick.cx
http://mccormick.cx




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