From: Florian Gilcher <flo@...>
Date: 2012-01-24T20:58:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Microrant on Ruy's Math Skills


> 
> I think it's come to the point where a forum is better than a mailing
> list for general discussions about Ruby.  I never would have said that
> a few years ago, but I'm saying it now.  In a mailing list, every
> message gets beamed into your inbox, so some people think they have
> the right to  react negatively to ignorance/oversights/off-topic
> chatter, etc.  In a forum, you opt in to discussions, and have to
> accept that it's a discussion, which typically involves repetition and
> redundancy, as it's conducted by humans.
> 
> Different sections to a forum make great sense as well.
> 
> Maybe there already is a vibrant one out there that I don't know about.
> 

As someone who cares for a local ruby forum, I can say one thing out
of experience: Forums are on a decline, so I wouldn't bother about creating 
a new one, even if it was a more fitting environment.

As for the discussion: this comes up every 6 months and the horse is already
dead in the first mail. While I can certainly understand the frustration with
float, the decision is made. Reverting it would mean touching every piece of
software that does statistics. And in contrast to popular belief, there is
quite a lot of it out there. I know that at least 10 of my reporting scripts
running at several clients offices would break, which would be unacceptable for
me (expecially, because float is the correct datatype there). 
Changing such a primitive in a language is reckless.

I am perfectly fine with [insert the next big thing] taking a different approach there.

Regards,
Florian