[luau] MSWindows

[Jimen Ching]

On Fri, 2 Aug 2002 burnst001 at hawaii.rr.com wrote:
>>Couldn't a graphical method of executing 'rm -rf' also allow accidental
>>deletion?
>You could certainly design a GUI so that it was just as easy (a bad design),
>and people seem capable of out-idioting any idiot-proof measure. But let's face
>it, accidentally typing rm -rf /lib/* and hitting enter (when what was intended
>may have been something like rm -rf /lib/*.xxx) is a *lot* easier than openning
>a window on /lib, selecting every item in the directory, dragging them all to
>the trash, and then emptying the trash, all by accident.

Hmm, you seem to have conveniently deleted the sentence in my response
where I said features to prevent accidental deletion of files can be added
to a CLI program as easily as to a GUI program.

It is just as easily done to make rm move files to a trash directory.  But
this is not the default behavior.  The reason is, that is not what people
want rm to do.  They want a program that wipes out the list of files and
directories specified.  This is a powerful feature.  But like all powerful
tools, it is also dangerous.  This is true for mechanical tools, it is
true for computer tools.  If the person does not understand the dangers,
they should not be allowed to use the tools.  This is not elitism, it is
common sense.

If you shoot yourself in the foot with a shotgun, do not blame the gun.
Blame the person who gave you that gun without explaining the hazards.

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org