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Comment by dvrp

These are all about passive experiences (which are great don't get me wrong!), but I think you can do better. It's the same phenomenon DHH talked about in the Rails doctrine when he said to "Optimize for programmer happiness".

The python excerpt is my favorite example:

```

$ irb

irb(main):001:0> exit

$ irb

irb(main):001:0> quit

$ python

>>> exit

Use exit() or Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit

```

<quote> Ruby accepts both exit and quit to accommodate the programmer’s obvious desire to quit its interactive console. Python, on the other hand, pedantically instructs the programmer how to properly do what’s requested, even though it obviously knows what is meant (since it’s displaying the error message). That’s a pretty clear-cut, albeit small, example of [Principle of Least Surprise]. </quote>

parent dvrp 2 years ago

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