Re: YAML and its parsers

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From: Chris Devers
Subject: Re: YAML and its parsers
Date: 22:33 on 23 Jun 2006
On 23 Jun 2006, at 11:14 AM, A. Pagaltzis wrote:

> You know the clich=E9d anecdote about how the US space programme
> spent millions of dollars creating a pen that can write upside
> down and underwater when they discovered that normals pens don't
> work in zero G, and the Russians just used pencils?

Yes, but...

     The lesson of this anecdote is a valid one, that we
     sometimes expend a great deal of time, effort, and
     money to create a "high-tech" solution to a problem,
     when a perfectly good, cheap, and simple solution is
     right before our eyes. The anecdote offered above
     isn't a real example of this syndrome, however.
     Fisher did ultimately develop a pressurized pen for
     use by NASA astronauts (now known as the famous
     "Fisher Space Pen"), but both American and Soviet
     space missions initially used pencils, NASA did not
     seek out Fisher and ask them to develop a "space
     pen," Fisher did not charge NASA for the cost of
     developing the pen, and the Fisher pen was
     eventually used by both American and Soviet
     astronauts.

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

But by all means don't let that get in your way.


--=20
Chris Devers=
There's stuff above here

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