On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.comwrote:
2009/10/20 Ryan Delaney ryan.delaney@gmail.com:
I like this. Ideally IAR should never be "invoked", as its not a rule;
IAR
should be assumed. That said, I agree with the call and want to give
props
for the detailed explanation, which should help smooth things over.
I disagree. Following rules should be the default. We should only ignore them if we have a good reason to do so. Otherwise, there is no point having rules at all.
This is a bizarre, but ancient, misunderstanding of IAR. All IAR means is that priority number one is doing what is right, rather than pedantic allegiance to a dictatorial interpretation of rules. Since IAR is not itself a justification for anything, there is never any useful information added by saying "I am invoking IAR." The only defense is "I did this because X" where X is the reason that what you did was a good idea, so you might as well skip to the end. Rather than saying "I am invoking IAR and I did this because X", just say "I did this because X."
- causa sui