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At 4:57 PM -0600 9/16/02, Matt Gushee wrote: > * Well-designed tools, to really make a difference, often demand > growth on the part of their users. Compare, say, a Mercedes and a > Buick (I've never driven either, so I'm going by hearsay). Now I > would predict that almost anyone who is fully engaged in the driving > experience would prefer to drive a Mercedes ... but if your mind is > focused on trying desperately to make the meeting on time, while > your cell phone is buzzing, the radio is blaring, and some idiot > just cut you off ... who cares? Go for the Buick: it's cheaper and > probably a bit easier to drive. > If it's both cheaper and easier to drive, then I think the Buick is better designed. This assumes the use case for both cars are standard American highways and city roads and not the Indy 500. The only other factor that might argue in favor of the Mercedes design would be repair history and tendency to break down, but ease of use is a real concern, and one all too often overlooked in design. -- +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer | +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | XML in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly, 2002) | | http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian2/ | | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0596002920/cafeaulaitA/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | Read Cafe au Lait for Java News: http://www.cafeaulait.org/ | | Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://www.cafeconleche.org/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
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