If we want some variables to be allowed to be reset, we’ll make a part that allows such a reset to occur.  I’m against making it so that every variable _always_ resets every time.

Also feasable would be a Rule containing a list of Variables, and saying that any Variable on the list can be reset without causing the machine to become Running (possibly subject to restrictions such as only once per day per Worker).  Better yet, instead of a list, there can be a [resettable] descriptor which can optionally be added to a variable.

Agree with all of Hix’s points.  My thinking on _my_ proposal was that Parts are either Activated or Deactivated, and they all become Deactivated once the Machine goes into Standby, but all Variables keep their states unless expressly changed.

But the idea of a Goldberg Machine is that it’s a complex set of parths that you activate once, and it does a simple task.  You don’t start the device then stop it halfway through, add some more pieces, then continue, it’s a 1 shot device.

That ignores the “Running” / “Standby” distinction and the circumstances that cause the Machine to be “Running”.

A Goldberg Machine may be _intended_ to only be operated in order to perform the given task, but that doesn’t mean that the if/then or cause/effect relationships that are built into it aren’t active during construction.  If someone accidentally pushes over the first domino while reaching to adjust the setting on the flux capacitor….

I suppose you’re correct, then steps have to be taken to reset everything :p

S.K. will reprose slightly idfferent