From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2004-06-15T02:09:17+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] celsoft.com/Battery 0.1.1

Sean O'Dell wrote:
> On Monday 14 June 2004 09:27, James Britt wrote:
> 
>>Sean O'Dell wrote:
>>
>>>I am about to put the word "arbitrary" back into every single
>>>celsoft.com/Battery document I've written if people refuse to respect my
>>>opinion in the matter and continue to berate me over it.  I took it out
>>>initially trying to avoid hurting anyone's feelings, but since it seems
>>>apparent that this discussion is going to go on and on, I feel almost
>>>compelled to hold up the word on a billboard.  I used the word properly,
>>>and I still meant what I said.  I'm starting to feel sorry for taking the
>>>word out of the docs.
>>
>>Picking a different word to avoid hurt feelings is probably not a good
>>goal; picking better words to improve accuracy might be.
> 
> 
> Even Nathaniel himself admitted the decision to order tests alphabetically was 
> an arbitrary one.  Accuracy is 100%.  Annoyance at having this discussion is 
> somewhere above that.

I think I'm seeing the root of the disagreement (taking off my hacker
hat and putting on my Amateur Logician/Linguist Hat).

I think the decision to use alphabetical order may be an arbitrary
decision. But the ordering itself is anything but arbitrary. A is
followed by B is followed by C, and so on.

As I implied earlier, I don't think most of us would say that the words
in a dictionary are in "arbitrary" order.

Getting back to your dictionary definition, there is a definite reason
or principal in the operation of the ordering itself; but not
necessarily in the decision to use that particular ordering.

But me, I'm just a natural nitpicker. I think it's genetic.

Now to put on my Litterbox Cleaning Hat...


Hal