[Python-Dev] The socket HOWTO

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Antoine Pitrou writes:

 > Did you run a user survey?

Martin undoubtedly has a lot of experience with users, and it's quite
reasonable for him to express his opinions based on that informal
sample, yes.

The issue here is the difference between existential and universal
quantifiers.  Martin's arguments are not inconsistent.  They simply
acknowledge the existence of subsamples of users of the same document
with different needs and/or approaches to reading the document.  He
does not and has never claimed that all of his arguments apply to all
of the potential readers.

You might question whether the same document should serve both the
"cargo cult the examples" group and the "read the fine print" group.
That's a valid question, but here my feeling is that the answer is
"yes".  I very often "cargo cult" my first program, then go back to
the fine print and experiment by gradually changing that program to
test my understanding of the detailed explanations.  It is often
easiest to use the same document for both purposes because I already
know where it is and the quality of the writing.