QUOTE
This is what I am arguing: the PROGRAMS heading on page 232 never mentions the phrase Matrix Programs at all
QUOTE
It doesn't say matrix programs or any other such thing, it is programs
As I said, this may indeed be true, but it's also worthless. I never said "it says the words 'Matrix Programs'". *My* point was that 'PROGRAMS' on p232 specifically refers to the programs that the book chooses to categorize as 'Matrix Programs': Common Use, etc. This category is in opposition to the skillsoft category.
QUOTE
Matrix refers to the electronics and software environment in general. You could be plugged directly into a wired node and no network whatsoever. The device still has matrix attributes. Matrix is just the catchall word they use for electronics systems.
I never said anything different. 'Matrix Programs' is, for the fifth time, the term the book uses. It's not my term. When Krishach chose to claim that the 'PROGRAMS' section was not talking about 'Matrix Programs', however, it is relevant to point out that the section is clearly talking about the matrix and the programs that the book categorizes as 'Matrix Programs', from sentence one to the end (… where it specifically lists Common Use, etc., which the book chooses to categorize as 'Matrix Programs').
Again, in the section (p333? I forget) that the book specifically categorizes these programs as 'Matrix Programs', it refers to p232 for them, and only them. Skillsofts, etc., do not refer to p232, and p232 refers to programs of the category 'Matrix Programs', and only them.
Sensor, etc. are from another book; it's up to those books to keep their stuff straight. I didn't write them, and it's not my fault when they're wrong. We're talking about SR4, though, which has (among others) two categories in Software: 'Matrix Programs' and 'Skillsofts', and only the former refers to p232, and p232 refers only to the members of the former.
QUOTE
then I could simultaneously access every language and knowledge skill the game has with no penalty after I have acquired them.
… So? Besides, again, I didn't say they were good rules. I said the opposite. I've repeatedly said that my preference is for all programs to use the same rules, and (in my own games) RAW always loses to balance and simplicity. I've only ever been saying that the RAW doesn't appear to do this. It appears to have gone out of its way to not say it (which I agree is silly).