<div dir="ltr">Another possible solution is immediately before or after the quote, mention the GMX_NO_QUOTES option. It adds a small amount of text, but if someone should ever get offended they can clearly read how to fix that.</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 10:54 AM, Raf Ponsaerts <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raf.ponsaerts@med.kuleuven.be" target="_blank">raf.ponsaerts@med.kuleuven.be</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
Since the quotes are mostly composed out of natural language, they often<br>
can be interpreted in different ways and may trigger non-intended<br>
emotions. The response towards a quote probably depends on the<br>
background (cultural, educational, ...), personality and mindset of the<br>
reader. A quote may get another interpretation and can become offensive<br>
in time as well, while this was unintended.<br>
<br>
The fact that quotes are included, even by default, makes gmx distinct<br>
of commercial software for similar purposes.<br>
<br>
In my opinion, the quotes should be printed by default!<br>
You should not block a television channel (besides non X-rated perhaps)<br>
by default because there is one program that you do not like (I do<br>
seriously consider blocking the 'God'-channel...). But, if you don't<br>
like the television program, you zap to another channel or stop watching<br>
TV. You cannot claim that that the television channel stops broadcasting<br>
because you have issues with one or more television programs.<br>
<br>
Indeed, a reference could be added toward the manual (Quotes section?)<br>
in which you can state the intentions of the quotes (humor,<br>
non-offensive, ...) and where you provide the GMX_NO_QUOTES flag<br>
information.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
raf<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
On Thu, 2012-12-20 at 15:21 +0100, Bogdan Costescu wrote:<br>
> On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 10:45 AM, Tsjerk Wassenaar <<a href="mailto:tsjerkw@gmail.com">tsjerkw@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> > I don't think the particular discussion is important in the context of<br>
> > gromacs. It's being made much more than it's worth.<br>
><br>
> I would actually like to question how much is it worth. So let me ask<br>
> a few "why" questions:<br>
><br>
> - why were the quotes introduced ?<br>
> - why was the default to print them ?<br>
> - why continue to keep them ?<br>
><br>
> There were only 3 brief answers in this thread to the first question:<br>
> David van der Spoel: "Does it have a purpose? It can put a smile on<br>
> someone's face."<br>
> Justin Lemkul: "I'm a big fan of witty quips, though :)"<br>
> Mark Abraham: "...I'm all up for bringing an occasional smile to a face..."<br>
><br>
> To me these reasons are not enough to make it worth arguing about<br>
> offensiveness and other attributes of these quotes. Applying the<br>
> principle of least surprise would mean to disable printing them by<br>
> default. Document that they can be enabled by an envvar and add to<br>
> that documentation a warning that they can be offensive/politically<br>
> incorrect/etc. This way, only those who make the step to enable them<br>
> will see them. Opt in rather than opt out. Someone mentioned earlier<br>
> that they use quotes at login; this used to be widely spread years<br>
> ago. Nowadays though this is no longer the default, you have spend<br>
> some effort to add it. So why not applying the same principle to<br>
> GROMACS ?<br>
><br>
> Cheers,<br>
> Bogdan<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
gmx-developers mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:gmx-developers@gromacs.org">gmx-developers@gromacs.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.gromacs.org/mailman/listinfo/gmx-developers" target="_blank">http://lists.gromacs.org/mailman/listinfo/gmx-developers</a><br>
Please don't post (un)subscribe requests to the list. Use the<br>
www interface or send it to <a href="mailto:gmx-developers-request@gromacs.org">gmx-developers-request@gromacs.org</a>.<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>