Re: OT: Re: files list file for package 'man-db' ontains empty filename
Cameron MacFarland (cameronm@iinet.net.au) wrote 106 lines:
> On Monday, Nov 4, 2002, at 06:01 Australia/Perth, Wolfgang Weisselberg I
> wrote:
> >Cameron MacFarland (cameronm@iinet.net.au) wrote 24 lines:
> >>Why are there always people who do this?
> >>"I have a problem with X. How do I fix it?"
> >>"You don't. Use Y instead."
> >Because most people want to solve a problem P. P is
> >something like "get and read my mail" or "be able to recover
> >from catastrophic disk failure".
> Ok, in this case P is "fix dselect" not "install packages"
Actually, P was "I have a corrupted file locally ... which
breaks dselect". :-)
> >Now, people don't ask about P. They just assume they can
> >solve P with tools T_1, ..., T_n, using method M. Then they
> >run into a problem P_{T_x, M_x} [1]. Now, they are sure that
> >their choosen toolset and their choosen methodset is A-OK.
> >Therefore they ask about solving P_{T_x, M_x}.
> >Now, P_{T_x, M_x} may be easy, hard or impossible to solve.
> >This is, however, not relevant, for the person who answers
> >guesses -- most of the time correctly -- what P is, and
> >answers on that.
> So T_x is a subset of T, which is the complete set of tools that can
> solve the problem and M_x is the subset of M which is the complete set
> of methods to solve the problem.
They area subsets.
You assume that these tools and methods are sure to solve P and
solve it in a reasonably good way. This assumption is often
wrong.
> So you're saying that the response of suggesting an element of T and M
> that is not in T_x or M_x (suggesting a tool that the first person
> doesn't know about) is a valid response to the question P_(T_x, M_x). I
> agree, but you're assumption of what is P is wrong.
Turns out we were both wrong.
> >>Idiots.
> >So, when you say:
> > "How do I get my IIS stable? I need to have it running 24/7,
> > but I get a bluescreen on Win 95 every couple hours or so"
> >and I answer
> > "Well, you might try Linux and Apache -- unless you
> > absolutely *need* some IIS feature -- its far more stable and
> > secure."
> >you'll call me an idiot?
> No. In this case the thing to fix is IIS.
Actually, we don't know what bluescreens. It could be IIS, but
it could be any other program as well, so fixing IIS might help
not at all in this case.
> In this case I wouldn't call
> you an idiot for your suggestion. But if it went like this:
> "How do I fix Win 95 so it doesn't crash?"
> "Use Linux."
> Then I would.
So, *can* you "fix Win 95 so it doesn't crash"? From my
knowledge, you cannot, you can merely try and increase the times
between crashes. But then I am not a windows expert in any way.
> >Here, P is (un)installing software.
> >P is not "install/uninstall using dselect, because nothing else
> > will do".
> >P_{dselect} is "install/uninstall using dselect".
> Nope. Here is your mistake. I suppose the original comment is
> ambiguous. You read it as P="(un)install software" while I read it at
> P="fix dselect" since P="fix dselect" will then solve P="(un)install
> software".
Sure, but P="fix dselect" could be impossible, unfeasible or
painful (due to sideeffects). And even if you fixed dselect --
as in this case -- you may not gain the expected result.
> Unfortunately the English language isn't always precise.
And people are often faar les precise than they could be.
-Wolfgang
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