Re: Problem space and solution space

[Craig Carey <research@ijs.co.nz>]

On Wed, 14 May 2003 06:16:28 +0400 (MSD), "Alexandre E. Kopilovitch"
<aek@vib.usr.pu.ru> wrote:

>maa@liacc.up.pt (M?rio Amado Alves) writes:
>><<parts of "solution space" may be viewed as a "problem space" of
>>software development process>> (Alexander)
>>
>>A typical situation occurs in the chain
>>  1 requirements specification
>>  2 design
>>  3 program
>>where 1 is a problem to the designer, 2 is a solution to 1, 2 is a
>>problem to the programmer, and 3 is a solution to 2 (and transitively
>>to 1).
>
>No, that is only the middle part of the actual chain, which is more like this:
>
>1 real-world problem              -- here we are in problem space
>
>2 requirements specification      -- here we are still in problem space
...

Mr Tardieu (ada.eu.org gateway maintainer) wrote back to me, on my private
topic of a solution for the problem of threads at comp.lang.ada, being
fragmented (by messages from Russia). It was suggested privately that I
modify "Mailman" software.

I can't see what change would lead to success in this matter of stops
threads fragmenting up after passing through the software in France.

If a change were made then an obvious thing to do is to have the mailman
software require that 2nd and subsequent message contain a "References"
header. However that likely will not improve the apparent situation for
users of the outstanding Agent e-mail client for the Windows OS, since
Agent and Free Agent ignore "References:" headers. I sent in a bug report
to Agent months ago on the ignoring of References headers and no fix
resulted. They almost document that problem here:
  http://www.forteinc.com/agent/features.php

Though it looks like all of Mr Kopilovitch's messages currently go through
the ada.eu.org gateway, I would hope that it gets closed.
Mr Kopilovitch may be holding on to some of the best arguments for keeping
the gateway open. It is little used.

I was writing to Mr K privately in the last week but my e-mail was not
being replied to, leaving little option but to write here.

Craig Carey
http://www.ijs.co.nz/ada_95.htm