Temperature-compensated resonance ( was Re: [sdiy] RE: [AH]

[Olav Martin Kvern]

Colleagues--

This is the sort of question that quickly turns into a "religious" 
argument--like most engineering design questions. I've seen mature, 
intelligent people become physically violent over differing opinions on 
correct code indentation--let's try to avoid that!

In software engineering over the last thirty+ years, I've run into a lot of 
limiting design decisions based on questions that start with "Why would 
anyone want to <fill in the blank>?" Why would anyone want to use this 
program after the year 1999? Use more than 8 bits to define a character? Use 
a color space other than RGB? Open multiple documents at once?

You get the idea. Whenever you hear "No one will ever want to..." or "Why 
would anyone...", it's a good idea to question the assumption.

At the same time, making *no* assumptions about the way a product will be 
used can lead to a big problem: the product never ships.

You all already know this, but: The point is to reach a reasonable 
balance--neither making overly-limiting assumptions (like the ones listed 
above), nor spending forever trying to create a design that accounts for 
every possibility. In addition, the issues that tip the balance one way or 
another depends on the audience and the intended use (defined as broadly as 
possible) of the product.

Mr. Wiltshire has already created some of the most interesting DIY projects 
around--I look forward to seeing how he solves the design dilemma.:-)

Thanks,

Ole