[ILUG-Social] RE: [ILUG] odd math :)

[Kenn Humborg]

> it just occured to me...
>
> doesn't it seem like coding user friendly (dummy-proof) is much like this:
>
> "User Friendliness is inversely proportional to a developers sanity"
>
> has anyone else come accross this strange phenomena?

Yes and no.  It's worth bearing in mind that there is a _huge_
difference between "idiot-proof" and "idiot-friendly".

Making code idiot-proof is an essential part of development.  If that
drives you insane and you don't like doing it, then I hope I never
have to use your code.  It's basically the process of making your
code/app/library/whatever robust in the face of _any_ input.  "Robust"
means "behaves consistently"...

Making code idiot-friendly is not essential for all code, but depends
on the audience you are targetting.  If you're writing an app for
hard-core kernel driver hackers, you can get away with a lot less
"idiot-friendliness", but you will need lots of "idiot-proofness".
If you're writing a GUI mail reader for novice computer users then
you'll need lots of _both_.

Sorry for the rant, but one of my pet peeves is people who don't
code defensively and don't check status returns...

> sorry for this msg, my brain shut-down a while back.... ;)

Hence I'm following up to social at linux.ie.

Later,
Kenn