Sandman
In article <plrkl9lv8ergvg49n6uipmt2i9m9t8139k@4ax.com>, Tony Cooper wrote:

Tony Cooper
I see what you've done. You've assumed, incorrectly, that my statement has to do with using a program that someone else has designed and I have no choice of what requirement there will be.

There are many instances where using a password is optional and making the requirement of using one is a choice.

Sandman
Please use an example instead of hot air, where the user sits down wanting to use a password.

Tony Cooper
I did. The laptop mentioned below. It is not an example of a user who "sits down wanting to use a password" because that has nothing to do with what I said.

Sandman
Remember the claim, Tony - "a requirement is what you want to do". You then proceeded to claim that he wanted to add a password check, which *was not a requirement*. It was an option, and an option he choose to enable.

Let me try to break this down to you so you can follow along. If you continue to stand by your claim that "a requirement is what you want to do" after this, then you're beyond all hope.

It's going to be a long text, so I'm sure you'll just snip/ignore it, but here goes:

- A desire is what you want to do - A requirement is what you HAVE to do

There's a difference, you see. Let's use an example!

You may hear someone say that "I require food!" when they're hungry, which you naturally interprete as them wanting to eat. That's only natural, and it's an expression to lend emphasize to the desire. But let's analyze this from the meaning of the words, shall we?

The person in question doesn't actually require food, nor does he WANT food. Yes, it's sounds whacky, but I'll explain.

The thing is that the requirement is from the persons BODY, it *requires* food - or rather, nutrition and energy, in order to function. That is a necessary condition for the body to not, you know, die.

The person uttering this does not want "food", since "food" is a general term to mean pretty much anything edible. For instance, if you were to serve this person cow entrails, he probably wouldn't eat it, right? But - and here's the thing - those cow entrails would quite likely actually satisfy the bodily *requirement* of nutrition and energy. They're full of protein, vitamins and carbo hydrates - and as you know, in some parts of the world, this kind of dish is not far from actual meals.

Back to our person - no he doesn't want "food", he wants *specific* items found in the vast category of "food". And this is where the huge difference between "want" and "require" manifests itself:

- The body REQUIRES food - The person WANTS a pizza

With me, YET?

No? Ok, another example!

A photographer comes home from a photo shoot and offloads his shots into the computer, and when he's done, he thinks that in order to feel safe, he wants to have a backup of those photos. So we have his desire all set out - he wants to make a backup. That's what he WANTS.

So, when he fires up his backup program, he then realize that in order to fulfill his desires (i.e. "wants"), he need to meet a requirement set by the application - that the backup disk is connected to his computer. That is something he HAVE to do, not something he WANT to do. There is a huge difference.

After unloading his photos, he didn't think to himself "I want to connect my backup drive", no, he wanted to make a backup. Attaching the backup drive is just a requirement for that to occur.

Requirement - something you HAVE to do Desire - something you WANT to do

Hope that helps.