Re: [spoon-discuss] Simplifying

[Adam Hill <adamahill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- Daniel Lepage <dplepage@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>One of things I've discovered from years of programming is that there 
>comes a time in every major project (often a number of times) when you 
>have to throw everything out and start over. You realize that the goals 
>of your program have changed so much from your initial concept that the 
>code you wrote at the beginning is being worked around in almost every 
>new class; but you can't change it, because the sort of changes you'd 
>want to make are things that never even occurred to you when you 
>started; small changes in the basics will require numerous large 
>changes everywhere else. There's nothing to do but begin from the 
>beginning once again.

That's all well and good, but why not keep the original around while a new one is being written?  It's better than nothing.

>	Did you know that r301 permits 'Robots' to throw things? I don't even 
>know what a 'Robot' is.

Robots were a tool in Football.

>	We've got all these attributes that nobody's heard of; we've got 
>special cases set up to workaround all the basics; in short, we've got 
>a really ugly set of rules.
>
>It seems to me that the thing to do, then, is to rewrite pretty much 
>the entire Grid rule from scratch. As there are numerous 
>cross-dependencies (most of which are unnecessary), any substantial 
>changing of any portion of the Grid would be practically guaranteed to 
>have conflicts in other grid-related rules. Thus, the best way to 
>rewrite things would be to simply destroy everything, then build it 
>back up from the bottom.

I disagree.  I think we should remove the things that don't work, and add new things that might.

>We also have an Admin who's just given eir two weeks notice.
>
>Given that, it makes sense to me that we should get rid of the things 
>that make being admin really unpleasant. Not because this will change 
>Dave's mind, as I suspect it won't, but because it will make it 
>possible to continue with the game despite the lack of Admin.
>
>As fulfilling the first of these goals also fulfills the second, it 
>seems like a global repeal is the best strategy.

Yes, but regardless of whether the Admin stays or we have to play without an Admin, we'll end up complicating things again because it's fun.

>I don't see how this would 'limit our future options' - this is a Nomic 
>game. The future options are limitless. Repealing the Grid doesn't mean 
>that we can't ever have a Grid again; it just means that the next time 
>we have a Grid, it'll be written more nicely.

It limits our options by leaving us -- at least temporarily -- without a great subgame.  We can just remove the broken things and rebuild from there.


Anything McGee.

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