From: "Matthew Heaney" <matthew_heaney@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Kindness
Date: 1999/09/03
Date: 1999-09-03T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <37d0608e@news1.us.ibm.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 37CC6844.AB898EEE@rational.com
In article <37CC6844.AB898EEE@rational.com> , Mark Lundquist
<mark@rational.com> wrote:
> A while back, a guy posted to this group with a question about how to do
> something (or not do it) in Ada. One respondent, a respected expert in
> the Ada community, replied with a post that was pretty thoroughly
> contemptuous and condescending.
I don't think I'm the "respected expert" to whom you are referring, but I
think I responded to the question too.
If I'm thinking of the correct post to which you are referring, the question
was about how to fix up a very C-like solution to a problem of passing
arguments by reference.
> I don't get it! The guy asking the question was willing to expose his
> ignorance, and he put the question clearly and courteously. So why the
> insults?
Sometimes you have to drive home the point. If you sound tenuous or
otherwise wishy-washy in your response, then the reader might infer from
your answer that the other way of solving the problem is OK too.
The problem is that the question itself was all wrong, and it was obvious
that the programmer hadn't really groked the Ada way of doing things. So we
had to set this guy straight once and for all, that he's going to have to
learn a different way of writing computer programs.
> I felt bad for the guy who asked the question and embarassed
> by this response.
I wouldn't describe the response as an ad hominem attack. Rather, it was a
forceful statement to the effect that the programmer's thinking is the real
problem, and that he's going to have to learn to think differently.
If someone's feelings get hurt by the tone of a response, well I'm sorry
about that, but sometimes life's a bitch. Just try to hang in there.
> Also, it was a great opportunity to point out some of the clear advantages of
> Ada, but it went to waste 'cause now that guy will probably go away thinking
> of Ada as the Language Of Buttheads.
You learn the advantages of a language by programming in it, not by being
told how great it is.
--
Matt
It is impossible to feel great confidence in a negative theory which has
always rested its main support on the weak points of its opponent.
Joseph Needham, "A Mechanistic Criticism of Vitalism"
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-09-03 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 45+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-08-31 0:00 Kindness Mark Lundquist
1999-09-02 0:00 ` Kindness Larry Kilgallen
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Andy Askey
1999-09-05 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
1999-09-07 0:00 ` Kindness Andy Askey
1999-09-07 0:00 ` Kindness Bill Findlay
1999-09-02 0:00 ` Kindness Jerry Petrey
1999-09-02 0:00 ` Kindness Nick Roberts
1999-09-02 0:00 ` Kindness Marin David Condic
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Geoff Bull
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Aidan Skinner
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Marin David Condic
1999-09-06 0:00 ` Kindness Bill Findlay
1999-09-06 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
1999-09-07 0:00 ` Kindness Marin David Condic
1999-09-07 0:00 ` Kindness Bill Findlay
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Larry Kilgallen
1999-09-04 0:00 ` Kindness Aidan Skinner
1999-09-06 0:00 ` Kindness Geoff Bull
1999-09-05 0:00 ` Kindness Aidan Skinner
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Marin David Condic
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Larry Kilgallen
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Robert I. Eachus
1999-09-04 0:00 ` Eight Queens problem (was Re: Kindness) Daryle Walker
1999-09-05 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-09-14 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-09-06 0:00 ` Vladimir Olensky
1999-09-06 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-09-07 0:00 ` bourguet
1999-09-08 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-09-08 0:00 ` bourguet
1999-09-08 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-09-08 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness tmoran
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Kindness Marin David Condic
[not found] ` <37D55622.69B27515@rational.com>
1999-09-07 0:00 ` Homework (was Re: Kindness) Larry Kilgallen
1999-09-08 0:00 ` Ted Dennison
1999-09-08 0:00 ` Homework Mark Lundquist
1999-09-03 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney [this message]
1999-09-09 0:00 ` Kindness James William Zuercher
1999-09-10 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
1999-09-10 0:00 ` Kindness Mark Lundquist
1999-09-10 0:00 ` Kindness Robert Dewar
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