John Hosking said:
So have I. You lost me on this one, dorayme.
OK, John. Been feeling awkward and cussed lately. But something
just went right with my work and my mood has lifted.
There are three pictures to paint in the absence of real
knowledge of the code behind IE7, two of them exist in the real
world and one in Alice's.
(1) The bug is not there.
(2) The bug is there.
(3) The bug is there and not there.
One could say that which one chooses - in the absence of real MS
code knowledge - would be influenced by one's emotions, one's
prejudices and passions. These are hot things that can sway the
normally cool brain.
If one chooses (1), then, well... it does not have the bug. The
bug is not there. It does not exist in IE7. It is not
"suppressed" or "on the way out". It is gone. There is no bug to
be ex or pro or ante or pre or on the way in or out or anything.
It is not there lurking suppressed. It is not there with some big
guys holding it down or in a locked petri dish immersed with bug
anaesthetic in some corner of IE7. It is not any kind of bug.
There is no such bug. The unprejudiced or unscarred mind would
simply describe the situation as one where the software is
that-particular-bug-free.
Now, the prejudiced mind, especially the one with some brain
power, will obviously not choose (2). It would love to choose (2)
if it thought it could get away with it. But the average
prejudiced schmuck (as we all are at times) does not like his
schmuckery revealed too openly. Clearly, to choose (2) without
qualification would endanger a standing as a non-schmuck.
So, what to do? It is not too hard. Remember, we are talking
about schmucks with some brains. Obvious, my dear Watson, you
sort of try paint a picture where the odium of (2) is still there
without actually saying it is there full stop. Hence the handy
(3) comes into the picture.
OK, I hear you say, but (3) is a self-contradiction and the
schmuck in question has brains. He is not going to openly embrace
a contradiction. (Schmucks have an unreasonably paranoid fear of
contradiction. Sure, these are not nice things, but there are
worse things. Schmucks have no sense of perspective or
proportion. They are always going too far. They can rave on and
on.). You would be right in this John. Dead right! No, the
schmuck would not publicly and openly embrace (3).
The trick is to embrace (3) but hide it in a wrapper, that's
where the talk of "suppressing" and "on the way out" comes in.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say something without
interruption. I feel better now.
