From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9b30240b5a381bbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-31 05:21:58 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board? Date: 31 Aug 2002 05:21:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <5ee5b646.0208310421.1743a7cb@posting.google.com> References: <5ee5b646.0208251756.379529c5@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 139.92.234.8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1030796518 490 127.0.0.1 (31 Aug 2002 12:21:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Aug 2002 12:21:58 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28624 Date: 2002-08-31T12:21:58+00:00 List-Id: tmoran@acm.org wrote in message news:... > > Let's suppose that everyone adds 10 lines and quotes everything before > Let's suppose that everyone adds 10% to what they are quoting. Then > the size of message N is 1.1**N * OP. Tom you are digging yourself in deeper here in an attempt to justify your basic error :-) If you make the absurd assumption that the size of replies asymptotically increases by 10%, then the total amount of material filed increases exponentially WITHOUT quoting. That's of course obvious but totally irrelevant. It is true that sometimes the drivel on this newsgroup in some threads gives the impression of increasing with every reply, but even the CLA folks can't keep that up for ever :-) > > Let's suppose that everyone adds 10 lines and quotes > > everything before > > So the size of messages grows only linearly > Right. In that case new messages don't grow > > exponentially, but linearly. Yes, but my comment was about the size of the thread. > > But, by elementary summing of an arithmetic series, the > > total amount of space > The reader of a message doesn't see the sum, but rather > > the latest > > individual message (unless he has a really strange mail > > reader). Someone reading the thread will see the quadratic accumulation. > In a more perfect world, everyone would quote, say, 2 > lines for context, > add a concise 3 line comment, and all messages would be a > constant 5 lines. That's a silly comment, especially without a smiley. Sometimes you have to quote quite a bit, sometimes only a little. Sometimes you can say what you are saying briefly, sometimes it takes longer. Some of my most useful posts are in the form of lengthy tutorials. Now that Google has the full archives, I am extracting these into a book :-) The underlying annoying behavior here is people using microjunk mailers set to quote the entire message by default (yes, I realize some other mailers besides microjunk ones can make this too easy as well -- people have a nasty habit of following the MJ lead :-)