Berwin A Turlach wrote: > > I am well aware of those fortunes and maybe you missed the one: > > >> fortune("Watson") >> > > Getting flamed for asking dumb questions on a public mailing list is > all part of growing up and being a man/woman. > -- Michael Watson (in a discussion on whether answers on R-help > should be more polite) > R-help (December 2004) >
i did miss it. i'm gladly including it in my collection of quotes documenting your approach to your users. thanks. > >> ah, so what's the difference between the way i pinpoint design flaws >> and the way r gurus respond to people, so that i am running with a >> chip on my shoulder, and they are being 'negatively >> motivating/reinforcing' in didactic terms? [...] >> > > Your goal is, presumably, that you want to have the design flaws > fixed/discussed/&c. The goal of the R gurus is to avoid having to > waste their time on unproductive issues because people do not read > documentation/behave contrary to how they are asked to behave/&c. > > To reach your goal, the controversial approach is counter productive. > To reach their goal, the controversial approach can be quite effective. > > nice summary. you rule, we crawl. > Come on, read your own quote above: "Shouldn't the tests have captured > this? I think you should have a check for every feature following from > the docs", If this is not "telling others that they should write such > test", then what is? > employing the recent trick of duncan's, i'd say that i wasn't telling anyone that they should do something. i said 'i think', which is explaining what i think, not telling to do. but even without the trick, even if i said 'you should' instead of 'i think you should', if you were not oversensitive, exaggerating, and prejudiced, you would be able to read it as a suggestion. we clearly differ in our understanding of 'tell' -- and it's of course my fault, as my english is certainly more unlike the official than yours. vQ ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel