fast code and no morals

[geoff]

In article <2138 at brl-tgr.ARPA> gwyn at brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) writes:
>> There is no such thing as a program that runs too fast...
>
>Ahem.  I have seen some programs where so much attention was
>paid to running speed that the question of whether the correct
>results were being computed was ignored..

While I was in school some people were working on a 'paint' graphics program.
One of the operations was 'fill' to color large areas easily.  Kind of like
pouring a bottle of ink on the screen and letting it run any place not
bounded by other objects.  As I recall the fill code was written in Ikonas
microcode and was so fast that users were uncomfortable with it.  It was
artificially slowed down so that you could see the operation occurring
rather than *blink* its done.  Gave 'em a feeling of control or something.
	Does happen.  Rarely, tho'.

		geoff sherwood
		ihnp4!burl!geoff