From: xah@... (Xah Lee)
Date: 2004-01-27T02:44:56+09:00
Subject: Re: perl bug File::Basename and Perl's nature

just a few notes to wrap this thread up.

* several perl morons didn't heed my imperative of perusing the notes
in "perldoc File::Basename". By their nature, they skimmed and scanned
and came back with "the doc said so!". They posses no attention to
detail nor knowledge of precision writing, consequently with lowered
reading comprehension. Like a man exposed to noise or shit or
malfunction, they hear nothing, smell nothing and ebythin's alright.

* when it gets one to think about design, File::Basename is one
fucking turd. The suffix list should not be regex in the first fucking
place. (it shouldn't even require a suffix list by default). The need
to feed it OS type (fileparse_set_fstype($os)) is fucking defeating
the main point of using this module.

Fuck Perl and fuck Perl morons around the world.

 Xah
 xah@xahlee.org
 http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html

--------------------------------------
Responsible Software License
By: Xah Lee, 2003 July

Software is a interesting invention. Software has this interesting
property, that it can be duplicated without cost, as if like copying
money. Never in history are goods duplicable without cost. But with
the invention of computer, the ephemeral non-physical programs breaks
that precept. In digital form, program and music and books all become
goods in essentially infinite quantity.

All is good except, bads in digital form can also multiply equally,
just as goods. Wellknown examples are computer viruses and email
spams. Unknown to the throng of unix morons is software bads. In a
unix moron's mind, the predominant quip among hackers is "where is
your code?", singnifying the mentality that a hacker's prestige is
judged on how much code he has contributed to the community.
Therefore, every fucking studs and happy-go-lucky morons put their
homework on the net, with a big stamp of FREE, and quite proud of
their "contributions" to the world. These digital bads, including
irresponsible programs, protocols, and languages, spread like viruses
until they obtained the touting right of being the STARDARD or MOST
POPULAR in industry, as if indicating superior quality. Examplary are
C, Perl, RFC, X-Windows, Apache, MySQL, Pretty Home Page (and almost
anything out of unix). The harm of a virus is direct. The harm of
irresponsible software (esp with unscrupulous promotion) is the
creation of a entire generation of bad thinking and monkey coders. The
scales can be compared as to putting a bullet in a person brain,
versus creating a creed with the Holocaust aftermath.

Distribution of software is easily like pollution. I thought of a law
that would ban the distribution of software bads, or like charging for
garbage collection in modern societies. The problem is the difficulty
of deciding what is good and what is bad. Like in so many things, i
think the ultimate help is for people to be aware; so-called
education; I believe, if people are made aware of the situation i
spoke of, then irresponsible software will decrease, regardless any
individual's opinion.

--

The most important measure to counter the tremendous harm that
irresponsible software has done to the industry is to begin with
responsible license, such that the producer of a software will be
liable for damage incurred thru their software. As we know, today's
software licenses comes with a disclaimer that essentially says the
software is sold as is and the producer is not responsible for any
damage, nor guaranteeing the functionality of the software. It is
this, that allows all sorts of sloppitudes and fucking fads and myths
to rampage and survive in the software industry. Once when software
producers are liable for their products, just as bridge or airplane or
transportation or house builders are responsible for the things they
build, then injurious fads and creeds the likes of (Perl, Programing
Patterns, eXtreme Programing, "Universal" Modeling Language...) will
automatically disappear by dint of market force without anyone's
stipulation.

In our already established infrastructure of software and industry
practices that is so already fucked up by existing shams, we can not
immediately expect a about-face in software licenses from 0 liability
to 100% liability. We should gradually make them responsible. And
this, comes not from artificial force, but gradual establishment of
awareness among software professionals and their consumers. (Producers
includes single individual to software houses, and consumers includes
not just mom & pop but from IT corps to military.)

archived at
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/responsible_license.html

 Xah
 xahlee.org
 http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html