[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #12371: Change get_generic_template's name

[WordPress Trac]

#12371: Change get_generic_template's name
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 Reporter:  filosofo      |       Owner:                                
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new                           
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  3.0                           
Component:  Template      |     Version:  3.0                           
 Severity:  normal        |    Keywords:  get_generic_template has-patch
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Comment(by filosofo):

 Replying to [comment:2 nacin]:
 > Maybe this can be brainstormed at the end of or just after the dev chat
 when there's a handful of developers around to fire names back and forth,
 then come to a consensus? (Without it devolving into a bikeshed
 discussion.)

 I'm not wedded to `get_specific_template`: almost anything's better than
 `get_generic_template`.

 However, since the "bikeshed" thing came up last week I feel like I need
 to explain why I will avoid a "bikeshed discussion."  The "bikeshed
 discussion"

 {{{
 is a metaphor indicating that you need not argue about every
 little feature just because you know enough to do so.
 ...

 In the specific example involving the bike shed, the other vital
 component is an atomic power-plant, I guess that illustrates the
 age of the book.

 Parkinson shows how you can go in to the board of directors and
 get approval for building a multi-million or even billion dollar
 atomic power plant, but if you want to build a bike shed you will
 be tangled up in endless discussions.

 Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic plant is so vast,
 so expensive and so complicated that people cannot grasp it, and
 rather than try, they fall back on the assumption that somebody
 else checked all the details before it got this far.   Richard P.
 Feynmann gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the point,
 examples relating to Los Alamos in his books.

 A bike shed on the other hand.  Anyone can build one of those over
 a weekend, and still have time to watch the game on TV.  So no
 matter how well prepared, no matter how reasonable you are with
 your proposal, somebody will seize the chance to show that he is
 doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is *here*.

 In Denmark we call it "setting your fingerprint".  It is about
 personal pride and prestige, it is about being able to point
 somewhere and say "There!  *I* did that."  It is a strong trait in
 politicians, but present in most people given the chance.  Just
 think about footsteps in wet cement.

 I bow my head in respect to the original proposer because he stuck
 to his guns through this carpet blanking from the peanut gallery,
 and the change is in our tree today.  I would have turned my back
 and walked away after less than a handful of messages in that
 thread.
 }}}
 [http://bikeshed.com/ Source]

 In other words, something becomes a bikeshed discussion when
  * the topic is trivial
  * the interlocutors are
    * intransigent
    * arguing so as to show off their limited knowledge
    * knowledgeable of only basic things

 That means that saying to someone that he's engaging in a bikeshed
 discussion is an insult: Essentially, "you are unknowledgeable and being
 intransigent about trivial things."

 I'm happy to brainstorm about this or other WP proposals, but I won't be
 intransigent.  It isn't that important.  I've made this ticket with an
 alternate suggestion, but if the commit devs decide to leave it as
 `get_generic_template` I won't be overly concerned; I won't argue about it
 any more; you won't see me bringing it up on WP-Hackers.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12371#comment:3>
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