From: jkowalik@gandalf (Yarek Kowalik / LGS) Subject: Re: Tractatus Linuxicus Newbius Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 13:04:54 GMT
ksh@prl.ufl.edu (Kevin S Ho) writes:
: In article <trucken.746023366@milli>, trucken@milli.cs.umn.edu (David Truckenmiller) writes:
: |>
: |> > I am a philosopher myself, and I really think no one should be allowed
: |> >to wield power over technology who cannot pass a course in literary
: |> >criticism.
: |> OK.
: I don't know if I can pass a course, but since when does literary
: criticism have anything to to with operating systems?
Hear, hear... The pre-previous poster is saying that those who cannot
pass the course in literary criticism should not be allowed to "wield power"
over technology. I would rather argue that those who *do not understand*
technology should *not* wield power over it, and my belief is that there are
more of the later than those of the first.
: |> The point is, this stuff is complicated, and there should be a step-by-
: |> step guide, and mostly there already is for Linux. The techincal jargon
: |> creeps in because that is how we talk. What is needed now is for people
: |> like you that have learned the hard way, but can speak in non-jargonese,
: |> to write manuals.
: The point being that if we don't speak like ourselves, we get really wordy.
: Try learning a foreign language and writing a book in it.......That's hard.
:
I understood from your reply that you cannot communicate ideas about computer
in English without using technical jargon, and so it would be hard for you to
"write a book" in layman English... I don't think it is so difficult. After
all you did write most of your response in tech-less English. And it was about
computers, and it was not too difficult, was it? I think that most books for
non-initiated in the Computer Wisardry lack a certain progressive teaching
of the terminology.. Once that terminology is taught, one can get very
precise in their books, and be fairly certain that the reader would
understand... but maybe Computer Science is too young to have a stable
terminology, and besides who would want to read an OS manual for the first
to last page? It is a complex matter, and there are many things that should
be done. Like, why not teach some of the jargon to kids, so when they grow up
it would become an integrated in their language (if it is not already) and
understood that a hard disk is not a floppy in a hard case.
If things continue progressing as thy are, which they most likely will, the
gap between those who understand computers and those who do not will become
wider. And even in the new generation that gap will remain, even though
people will not be as scared to use them (due to more powerful and easier
to use Operating Sytems), because there will be relatively few people in the
society who will be taught to understand them. Personally I look at Linux
as an excercise, a very good one, that will teach me (and many other people)
how to run, make and operate a good system. I will probably teach a lot of us
how to make OS user friendly, be it through good manuals, or other important
ways. Because I think of Linux as being an excercise on a large scale
I think its accessablity to "outsiders" will be limited for a while ( I am
not excluding a possibility that Linux will not go beyond that). Advances
in technology always lag in real life applicatons.