P.S. Re: [olpc-software] AbiWord, HIG

[Alan Kay]

P.S.

At 04:23 AM 3/16/2006, Alan Cox wrote:
>On Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 04:34:50PM -0800, Alan Kay wrote:
> > It's worth pondering just why large portions of the computer community
> > didn't build on the best designs (and still don't) ... This wouldn't be
> > tolerated in any real science or engineering discipline ...
>
>History, and your assertion is definitely not true in engineering. Take
>the railways for example. Rails are 4'8 3/4" apart. Way too narrow for
>best performance - why - because pre roman cart wheels were 4'8 3/4" apart
>primarily because thats the right width to fit around a horse.

Do you know the Latin term for the ruts that the cart wheels ran in?

Cheers,

Alan