Jon Steinhart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > This is one of those places where we'll have to respectfully disagree. I'm
Respectfully? You imply i am not a professional. > but I think that programming is still something that should be done by > professionals. I don't want someone hacking on code that doesn't take the ti > me > to figure out what's going on first. Protecting against the really silly > mistakes allows such people to make really complex ones. As I said in my Give me a break. You want to pull the Real Man argument, fine, but don't call yourself a professional. Real Men make mistakes too, and don't tell me you've never slapped yourself on the head as you realize it was a tiny silly error all along. You come off sounding inexperienced more than anything else. It is this kind of idiocy that kept a debugger out of Linux for so many years: Linus is a Real Man and Real Men don't need debuggers. Aside from that, here's something you didn't think of. There *are* "unprofessional" programmers out there in the open source world. Hobbyists, i call them, since i don't go in for classism and value hobbyists as much as "professionals", not least because they're often less arrogant and more willing to learn than my fellow "professionals". What, you still want more? OK, there is the class i fall into. A "professional" who doesn't get to do much (if any) free software work at the job. When i come home i'm tired and much more likely to be tripped up by silly errors like the one i postulated. Would you rather do without my contributions? Too flamey? Possibly. Uncalled for? Absolutely not. I see this crap all the time and i am tired of it. But you know what really drives me up the wall? I deal with people like you every day in the "professional" world. Arrogant, stupid people who don't like any redundancy or "wasted" effort at all. The reductionist approach inevitably leads to mistakes. *It* is sloppy, not careful, explicit, *maintainable* code. Earlier today i was reminded of a quote from Londo Mollari, of Babylon 5. Hilarious that i was reminded of it today, in light of the drivel i am responding to now. "Ah! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" > Oh, some details. Snipped because they are inconsequential to this follow-up. It appears you were correct in this specific case (i do not have the time to double-check you, but i trust you). It is the attitude you have that concerns me. -- Eric Gillespie <*> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Build a fire for a man, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. -Terry Pratchett