From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-15T02:16:42+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] celsoft.com/Battery 0.1.1

On Monday 14 June 2004 09:57, Hal Fulton 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.
>
> Relax, this isn't a war.
>
> I can see how 1) unit tests "ought" not to rely on an order but 2) we
> might sometimes want to break that rule and control the ordering.
>
> But half of my interest in this thread is seeing how various people
> think and use words.
>
> Would you say that the ordering of the words in a dictionary is
> arbitrary?

No, because there is a solid reason for the order of the words in the 
dictionary, and that decision makes sense to me.  It could appear arbitrary 
to SOME people, but I think only those in the fringes of society (aka, crazy, 
fanatical, etc.).  Since I easily implemented test ordering, and can think of 
many reasons to not be forced into running them alphabetically, yet Test/Unit 
didn't give me the option, that's clearly arbitrary.  It was imposed on me, 
there was no good reason, etc.  Lots of qualities make "arbitrary" a great 
way to describe the ordering.

	Sean O'Dell