[OS X TeX] Finally we are grown up

[Fernando Pereira]

On Nov 20, 2006, at 3:13 AM, Louis Talman wrote:

> I think that it's very interesting that Claus didn't get it right  
> on the first try.  (Nor is this a criticism of Claus; we all make  
> mistakes like the ones he made.)

It is however evidence for the value of a well-designed installer  
system like i-Installer (thanks again, Gerben!). Software  
installation is hard, because it has to accommodate the almost  
infinite variability of local setups. A good installer can check for  
the invariants it expects before doing anything irreversible. A set  
of natural language instructions does that rarely, if ever. What  
makes natural language easier and more concise for people --  
vagueness, reliance on a shared background -- is exactly what makes  
it inappropriate as a medium for communicating configuration  
instructions.

-- F

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