Re: [lojban] jbovlaste query

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 04:43:48PM -0400, Matt Arnold wrote:
> In my universe, "broken" means "the operator of the device can't
> predict whether it is likely to accomplish what it is for at any
> given time."

Rant follows.

That's not what "broken" means in English.
http://www.answers.com/broken&r=67 -- the applicable definition is
10:  Not functioning; out of order: a broken washing machine.

The "technology" and "Hacker Slang" definitions move more in the
direction of allowing your usage, but they still clearly prefer
mine.

Functioning intermittently != not functioning at all; the latter is
what "broken" means, unless qualifiers are provided.  You did not
provide any.

Many people use jbovlaste lookups on a regular basis, and it does
what they want most of the time.  That's not broken.

As the admin of a tool, someone saying my stuff is "broken" puts me
into hyper "I have to go fix this right now" mode.  Having that be
spurious is rather frustrating.

Furthermore, responding to a report about a single bug in an
otherwise working piece of software with a single line just saying
that that entire feature is broken is just rude, both because it's
false (I can look up "klama" just fine, thank you very much) and
because it disparages all the effor that went in to making the
system work as well as it does.

-Robin