Re: On boolean configuration variables...

On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 04:00:34PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Hi,

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Anand Kumria wrote:

quoted

Allowing 'yes' and 'no' to equal 'true' and 'false' respectively sounds
pretty sane and user-friendly.

Why wouldn't you want to do that?

'Cause you'd have to add "maybe", too ;-)

Seriously, there is a subtle side to booleans, which is the reason that 
they typically take on only "false" and "true": Consider the question "Is 
the box not red?". If the answer is "yes", I do not know if "yes, the box 
is red" or "yes, the box is not red".

"true" and "false" are less ambiguous.

"True, the box is red" and "true, the box is not red" are just as ambiguous.
It is always ambiguous if you allow a qualifier.

Cheers,
Anand

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