From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2005-05-12T06:26:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Redesign 2005, Round Two

Hi --

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Ryan Leavengood wrote:

> James Britt wrote:
>>
>> Big agreement.  Advocacy works best when it avoids put-downs and
>> comparisons (e.g. faster, better, more fun).
>>
>> Say what Ruby is, not what other things are not.
>
> I agree. But in a sense the current slogan has implications like that:
>
> Ruby: Programmers' Best Friend (unlike all those other conniving,
> back-stabbing evil languages, who only want to hurt you)

I *knew* someone would mention that :-)

It still doesn't strike me as confrontational or challenging in the
same way.  I can't analyze exactly why, but I think it's partly
because "best friend" is so clearly a metaphor, and fully affirmative,
whereas "Make programming fun again" (or whatever) is concrete and
actually says something negative about what the person has been doing.

Then again, for all I know people do react defensively to the "best
friend" thing too.


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net