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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Hugo vs. TADS/Inform
Message-ID: <erkyrathDy3HLB.CGt@netcom.com>
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Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 18:19:59 GMT
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Dan Shiovitz (scythe@u.washington.edu) wrote:
> >I *strongly* disagree. The first principle of programming for real people
> >is: It is better for the programmer to suffer for an hour than for the
> >user to suffer for a minute. (And it is better for the compiler-writer to
> >suffer for a week than for the programmer to suffer for an hour. And so
> >on.) Langauge differences only matter when all other things are equal 
> >*for the user*. 

> Though it might be nice if I had the energy to make this statement true,
> I do not.  Neither do you, I expect.  Although in the first stages of
> game-writing this is true, as time drags on, the ratio of how much time
> I'm willing to spend programming a feature to how much time the user will 
> save by it gets smaller and smaller, until I call it quits and declare it
> a more-or-less finished game.

I did say "an hour", not "any amount of time."

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
