Software Obesity (was Re: Jargon file v2.1.5)

[Dan Bernstein]

In article <1991Jan4.024914.12226 at ashtate> tomr at ashtate (Tom Rombouts) writes:
> In article <3276 at unisoft.UUCP> greywolf at unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf) writes:
> >On the 'Net:  Why are more and more fourth-level wizard(-wannabe)s trying to
> >invoke ninth-level magic, instead of taking the time to climb the other
> >(quite essential) thirteen levels so they can do this properly?
> If they are at the fourth-level, and seek the ninth-level, doesn't that
> leave five, and not thirteen, other levels for them to climb?  :-)
> Sorry to be picky, but after all, this _is_ the 'Net, you know....

Faced with the strange conjunction of ``ninth,'' ``level,'' and ``magic,''
you might guess that the poster was referring to a stylized system of
organizing magical forces into numeric levels---a system with which he
expected many readers to be familiar. You might also guess that the
system assigns different levels to ``wizards'' (whoever they might be)
and magic---perhaps in a way that an N-th level wizard could invoke
magic of level at most (N+1)/2, or some similar relation so that 17-th
level wizards (17 is 4 plus 13) could invoke 9-th level magic. You might
also guess that the poster took the time to get his analogy correct in
such a short, pointed article, so that your adjustment was not needed.

---Dan