From xod@thestonecutters.net Mon Dec 02 09:28:07 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojban-out@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_2_3_0); 2 Dec 2002 17:28:06 -0000 Received: (qmail 64055 invoked from network); 2 Dec 2002 17:28:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m10.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 2 Dec 2002 17:28:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO digitalkingdom.org) (204.152.186.175) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 2 Dec 2002 17:28:06 -0000 Received: from lojban-out by digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.05) id 18IuMY-0008Vq-00 for lojban@yahoogroups.com; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 09:28:06 -0800 Received: from digitalkingdom.org ([204.152.186.175] helo=chain) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.05) id 18IuMT-0008VZ-00; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 09:28:01 -0800 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Mon, 02 Dec 2002 09:28:00 -0800 (PST) Received: from [66.111.194.10] (helo=granite.thestonecutters.net) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.05) id 18IuMP-0008VM-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 09:27:57 -0800 Received: from localhost (xod@localhost) by granite.thestonecutters.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id gB2HRQa58306 for ; Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:27:27 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from xod@thestonecutters.net) Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:27:26 -0500 (EST) To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: Why we should cancel the vote or all vote NO (was RE: Official Statement- LLG Board approves new baseline policy In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20021202121518.D57466-100000@granite.thestonecutters.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-archive-position: 2887 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: xod@thestonecutters.net Precedence: bulk X-list: lojban-list From: Invent Yourself Reply-To: xod@thestonecutters.net X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=110189215 X-Yahoo-Profile: throwing_back_the_apple On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, And Rosta wrote: > If the product of tinkering is something of general value, then today's > tinkering is tomorrow's valuable design feature. Our choice is whether > we want to bequeathe to our heirs a Lojban as good as we could make it > in the circumstances (which includes our leaving certain decisions to > them). I accept that this is not a prime consideration for current > Lojbanists. I'd prefer to bequeath to them THIS Lojban, and the lessons that can only come from healthy usage, which can only come from a stable language -- and let them worry about the next revision of the language. I'd rather have, in my lifetime and soon an imperfect language with a body, rather than 20 years on a document that offers a beautiful but untested, unused language. It's the same way with software. A team can literally keep working on a project, refusing to release it until it's perfected, for so long that it's obsolete before it's released. The lesson of the Xanadu project is the canonical case; a hypertext system started decades before the Web, which was trumped by the current Web technology precisely because the latter was imperfect, cheap, dirty, and simple. -- Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.