From: Shashank Date <sdate@...>
Date: 2003-08-24T02:40:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Quotable quote from Matz


"Lyle Johnson" <lyle@users.sourceforge.net> wrote in message
news:3F466B7E.3030005@users.sourceforge.net...
> One can also refer to this slide from Matz's OSCON2003 presentation:
>
>      http://www.rubyist.net/~matz/slides/oscon2003/mgp00043.jpg
>
> Or, to paraphrase another of Matz's lines from the past: "'Principle of
> Least Surprise' means least surprise to *me*" ;)

Yes, the *me* part needs to be underscored heavily. Otherwise, it is
ambiguous and  people are naturally going to interpret it in their own
context.

I can understand why Matz feels sick when he is reminded about that
principle in the wrong context, but I take it as a tribute to his genius. He
is doing his job so well (of sticking to that principle) that people start
expecting the impossible (and I don't mean this in a bad way: I think it is
very obvious to fall in that trap ...we are all heavily biased by the
language that we know best. Ok, may be not all ;-)).

Certainly, if the *me* part is stated in the correct fashion (like, * for
the unbiased*)  _in_the_same_breath_, then hopefully such "false positives"
will die down. Until then, Matz will have to chalk it up to "one more battle
wound to victory".

$0.02

--shanko