From: Joaquim Carvalho <jdc_at_x64.com>
Date: 08 Jan 2003 21:16:25 +0000

What I'm saying next is just my humble opinion, I'll shut up if
you tell me to.

Ease of use should be a concern. Rockbox should please the users
and not antagonize them or force them to be technical if they do
not want to.

One can say that a playlist with songs like
c:\windows\users\lammer\desktop\my music\somealbum\song1.mp3
is "wrong" and from a strict point of view it is, but many users
are not technically oriented and do not want to be. Some piece of
software wrote those playlists, not them!

Rockbox already strips c: because it knows of no c:
then it should strip \windows if there's no \windows directory on
the archos disk and so on until it finds an existing directory.

I would not call it "polluting good software with features which
correct user's bad practice", it's not the user's fault that some
crappy piece of software wrote "bad" playlists, most non technical
users just want to listen to the damn songs, they don't care about
paths and hard disks.

How will you feel if you go to the doctor in need of open heart
surgery to survive and he tells you you've done the wrong thing
smoking and eating greasy stuff all your life so he will not
operate on you and use a perfectly good valve replacement to
correct the problems caused by your bad behaviour?

I'm afraid a new digital dark age may be coming and the technical
guys should fight as hell to close the gap, enlighten people and
bring them to the right side. Pleasing people is a good start,
telling them they're lamers is not.

Joaquim
Received on 2003-01-08