Re: ADA made me hate programming

["Marc A. Criley" <mcNOSPAM@mckae.com>]

On 07/07/2010 07:23 PM, anon@att.net wrote:
><various things>

Anon,

I've made no personal attacks on you. While I have stated that I don't 
think you're a very good Ada designer or programmer, I clearly spelled 
out my reasons for that belief. Software design requires planning ahead, 
problem analysis, and skepticism about one's own and other's material 
and efforts. Your posts--throughout comp.lang.ada--show you clearly 
lacking in all three aspects, which bodes ill for the quality of your 
software skills.

I completely agree that making personal attacks is the refuge of those 
without valid arguments, which is why I don't do that, or go ad hominem, 
or guilt-by-association, or make false analogies, etc. But drawing 
conclusions about a person's abilities from the evidence they've posted 
and their ability (or lack thereof) to mount a valid argument or defense 
is simply how humans go about estimating the credibility, abilities, and 
trustworthiness of others. (Head's up: you're not doing well.)

You're saying that I haven't proved what you said is false. I think you 
need to go back and reread my responses. You claimed missile in-flight 
updates had been hacked and it was widely reported on the news. No, it 
wasn't, you haven't cited a single specific report from a reputable 
source for that claim--and all it takes is _one_ to prove me wrong. (I 
did look, and I couldn't find any either, not even from DISreputable 
sources :-) You claimed that Treason was the most common charge leveled 
against those who violated their security clearances. Again, no, I 
merely had to refer to the *first* Google link found using the keywords 
"US treason convictions" ("List of people convicted of treason 
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"), which took me all of 10 seconds to 
conceive and execute, to verify that was a false claim as well.

Believing something to be true doesn't make it true. Claiming something 
is true doesn't make it true. Repeatedly asserting something is true 
doesn't make it true. Refusing to back away from a claim proven false 
doesn't make it true.

The comp.lang.ada newsgroup has long been an excellent gathering place 
for both Ada fans and those who have questions, and its regular denizens 
have always supported it as a robust and respectful place for questions, 
debate, news, and community support. But those who come here to troll, 
to have someone do their homework done for them, to make baldly false 
statements about the language, its applications, and the world in which 
it operates will get smacked down. The signal-to-noise ratio is very 
high in this group, and it has to be actively maintained to stay that 
way. (Comp.lang.ada has been this way for as long as I've been in it, 
and I just checked and found what I think was my first post--from early 
1995!)

Debate can be a little rough at times, and I've been on the receiving 
end of it, not all of it undeserved 
(http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ada/browse_thread/thread/beb0b7471c6440e3/ca3db59dd03d8ad1. 
I'll admit that some of my responses in that thread were a tad 
intemperate, but I was younger then, it takes muuuuuch more to rattle me 
now :-)

The thing is that debate can be vigorous, and in those cases one needs 
to be knowledgeable, be prepared, and be credible. Simon Wright, Dmitry 
Kazakov, Pascal Obry, Ludovic Brenta, amongst many, many others have 
demonstrated in this newsgroup their knowledge of Ada, its use, and the 
thought behind it. They, again along with many others, make credible, 
reasoned arguments for their technical opinions, which may even 
contradict other newsgroup participants' from time to time. Their 
postings demonstrate that they've got the knowledge, the experience, and 
the technical chops to have _earned_ the credibility they possess on 
this forum.

You, on the other hand, have made provably false claims, made personal 
attacks on other members 
(http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ada/browse_thread/thread/ebdc5ed511896a0/a1e3ffc9fcaaf6a7?lnk=gst&q=bauhaus#a1e3ffc9fcaaf6a7, 
"Discussion subject changed to 'To new TROLL named Georg Bauhaus' by 
anon"--sorry George :-), and claim "volumes of knowledge" but refuse to 
back it up with actual code, publications, or any other materials, 
citing "paperwork" that prevents you from doing so. But Simon, Dmitry, 
Pascal, me (http://www.mckae.com, http://sourceforge.net/projects/evex), 
and many others put our work out on on the Web for anyone to access, 
download, hopefully put to good use, and make their own determination 
about our competence and capabilities.

I have no personal animosity towards you--you like Ada, which always 
grants some points in your favor. But I have no patience for 
foolishness, ignorance, and hubris, especially when it is proclaimed and 
defended as something other than what it is. Comp.lang.ada is a 
wonderful gathering place with great information and great professional 
people, and there is little tolerance for those who would damage it.

Marc A. Criley