[MUD-Dev] Wild west (was Guilds & Politics)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

JC Lawrence <claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>On Sat, 27 Dec 1997 15:50:15 PST8PDT 
>stad <Ola> wrote:
>> JC Lawrence <claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>>> Which is one point I intend to make expressly plain: it will be
>>> technically impossible to remove data from the logs without
[...]
>> Let me be difficult.  I have this X-windows system, with this global
>> clipbuffer, pasting is attached to that button in the middle...
>
>> Which makes this a funny signature: # rm -rf $HOME
[...]
>That, along with the fact that the native platform for the server is
>OS/2 means that `rm` and cronies aren't going to help you much.

???

No, that is not what I meant.  What I mean is that humans make slips.
Some systems make those slips more likely.  That makes "rm -rf" such a
funny and impolite and hated email signature.

A good design will strive towards providing recovery features.  Humans
make slips.  A good (HCI) designer will acknowledge that in the design
process.  So I guess, what I am saying is that you have made a lousy
design choice for the average user, although it probably is a
reasonable design for an experimental avantgarde MUD. :^)

(A good discussion of errors and slips is found in "The Design of
Everyday Things", by Norman.  The only important and general design
book I've found.)

>>> People time travelling cannot affect the past.  They are the
>>> proverbial flies on the wall -- they can only receive IO.
>
>> I guess you mean O.
>
>No, both.  They can see everything the watched object originated, and
>everything it received.

Hmm... Maybe you could explain a bit.  Are you watching from a spatial
position or are you watching the interface of an object?

Ola.