From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3e08c98d7ce85399 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Matthew Heaney" Subject: Re: Kindness Date: 1999/09/03 Message-ID: <37d0608e@news1.us.ibm.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 520821116 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit References: <37CC6844.AB898EEE@rational.com> X-Trace: 3 Sep 1999 23:58:06 GMT, 129.37.62.188 Organization: Global Network Services - Remote Access Mail & News Services X-Notice: should be reported to postmaster@ibm.net Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Mime-version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Complaints-To: postmaster@ibm.net Date: 1999-09-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <37CC6844.AB898EEE@rational.com> , Mark Lundquist 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"