From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-10-05T11:57:22+09:00
Subject: Re: Recent Criticism about Ruby (Scalability, etc.)

On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 11:40:04AM +0900, Jay Levitt wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 06:41:13 +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> 
> >> *chuckle* I do believe that's the first time in recorded history that
> >> anyone has accused AOL of being feature-rich.
> > 
> > AOL has always been "feature-rich".  
> 
> OK, the first time got a chuckle.  The second time gets a "what AOL were
> you smoking?"
> 
> Seriously.  You're a techie, not in AOL's targeted "novice" market, so I
> assume most of your interactions with AOL were (a) commercials involving
> Batman, (b) free DVDs in your cereal box, and (c) friends and family that
> asked you for help in uninstalling it.  So I can understand if you got the
> wrong impression of AOL, and all the shiny lights impressed you.

So now I'm stupid and easily distracted by shiny things.  Thanks.


> 
> Experience is subjective, and all that, so I can never know the AOL you
> used.  All I know is the AOL I wrote.  And it had like a dozen features
> visible to the user.

What was this -- circa '87?  Sorry, I wasn't familiar with AOL prior to
the early '90s in any sense.  I guess I should have been more specific in
my use of the word "always".  Perhaps that means I'm easily distracted by
pretty things, and unable to apply critical thought to concepts like
"organic expansion of a chatroom network is a feature".


> 
> And the point I keep trying to make, though you keep deflecting it, is that
> there ARE no guarantees that if you "do everything right" with a focused
> business plan and a lightweight feature set, you're golden for scaling.  Go
> back to the little list of AOL mail features I posted, and realize that not
> a single one of them scales linearly.  And realize that you might well
> implement a feature like that in a different system, maybe even without
> thinking about it, because it's not a big deal.  (Let's select a nicer
> screen name for someone if they can't find the one they want.)

I never said there were guarantees -- but I can see how you'd make the
assumption that my statements led in that direction, what with the fact
it would fit in so well with my obvious stupidity.  That, or your
imagining I said things I didn't because that's easier to dispute.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
They always say that when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade. 
I always wonder -- isn't the lemonade going to suck if life doesn't give
you any sugar?