🚀 go-pugleaf

Tom Werry (gpsnav@pacific.net.sg) wrote:
: You could at least close by thanking the guy.  Btw, does your
: scorecard count his article as a minus in the groups he posted to?
: ------------------------------------
: Taking your point more seriously, I think we could judge the value of
: any particular language or development tool by how many other people
: around the world bothered to say anything about it.  

I think the basic point could be summarized thus:

  There are twice as many blue marbles as red marbles.

  What may we infer?

  There are twice as many blue marbles as red marbles.

The trouble is that in a newsgroup, short of reading ALL postings and
categorizing them based on content, I don't think article count tells
much; there are simply too many uncontrolled variables to generalize
beyond the surface observation.  Maybe the VB groups get lots of spam,
I don't know, but I'm not prepared to draw conclusions based on article
count alone.  This completely sidesteps the far more disturbing question:
even if article count indicates market share and public awareness, does
visibility or market penetration indicate the quality of a language?

I seem to remember some quotation about lies, damn lies, and statistics.

--
Christopher Oliver                     Traverse Communications
Systems Coordinator                    223 Grandview Pkwy, Suite 108
oliver@traverse.com                    Traverse City, Michigan, 49684
'tis an ill wind that blows no minds.