A Plea For A Return To Sanity!!!

[Ivan Van Laningham]

Hello, All--

Tim Peters wrote:
> 
> [Ivan Van Laningham]
> > 1)  If the Perl yahoos would quit cross-posting flaming bags of shit,
> > it'd be over.
> 
> Actually, I'm afraid my reply here (as well as yours) keeps it going.
> 

I beg to differ.  I didn't cross-post, and your reply wasn't xposted
either.  You and I and all the other Pythonistas are being reasonable,
inoffensive and sane, as always!-)  I suspect that if you could somehow
quantify "flaming bag of shit"-ness, you would find a correlation
between that and cross-posting.

[snip]

> If they're as funny as Mr. X, we can only hope.  You should read Xah's posts
> again!  They're a good parody of the worst of "Usenet Attitude" postings.  We
> may have a potential Python convert there <wink>.
> 

OK, I'll try to read them.  But if you hear a distant explosion, it is
the top of my head blowing off in SLC.

>
> 
> Well, I read all of 'em, and they really were mostly about Python. 

I confess to being unable to read all of them all the way through.  I
read lots of TC's postings, however, and again I must differ with you;
they *pretended* to be mostly about Python.  What they were about,
however, was how miserably Python failed to meet the exquisitely perfect
standards of Perl.  Charitably, this is sandbagging.  Not so charitably,
it makes one wonder if perhaps TC is running for public office. ...

> Besides,
> Tom's very public misunderstandings are a *great* base on which to build a
> "Python for Perlers" FAQ.  Python isn't self-evident at first glance, and it's
> good to relive the initial confusions through his articulate eyes <ahem> (you
> may not have liked how he phrased things, but there was no doubt about what he
> was saying -- that's good writing).
> 

Oh, I agree with this.  Let us cast our Pythons before the perls. 
(Swine are actually highly intelligent, and their disdain for pearls
simply an indication of their pragmatic world-view.)

Quite seriously, I think this is a very good idea.  If I knew more than
nothing about Perl, I would volunteer to put such FAQ together; but not
only do I know zilch, I don't even have time to be writing this
letter;-)  I suggest that if such a FAQ project is picked up by someone,
we leave out the abrasive comments by TC regarding the assholes here
among the Pythonistas.  Why warn potential converts when we can flame
them?

> or-is-this-a-competition-to-see-who-has-the-thinnest-skin?-ly y'rs  - tim

<i-win-i-win!>-ly y'rs,
Ivan
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Ivan Van Laningham
Callware Technologies, Inc.
ivanlan at callware.com
ivanlan at home.com
http://www.pauahtun.org
See also: 
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of '70
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