Guido at Google

[Alex Martelli]

<bonono at gmail.com> wrote:
   ...
> > > > > I wonder how high a particular programming language is in the prioirty
> > > > > of either organisations of such size ?
   ...
> from me), there really is nothing I can do other changing the mail name
> which I am intended to.

Sorry, can't parse this (I doubt it's English).

> What is your meaning of "wrong idea in the general case" ?

In the general case, it's pretty general;-).  In the specific case of
your "question" above quoted (interpreting the mis-spelled words and
grammatical errors to the best of my modest ability), reading it as
rhetorical means it's in fact intended as a statement (that a particular
programming language cannot have high priority for organizations of size
similar to MS's and Google's), and such a statement is incorrect (as I
tried showing with several examples displaying "particular programming
languages" having high strategical priorities for organizations with
many thousands of employees, including one with more personnel [larger
size] than Google's).

An example of rhetorical question:
"Do you really think that a specific technology [including a software
one, such as a programming language] cannot have, in certain cases,
*extremely high* strategic priority for organizations with thousands of
employees?"

In this example, the question is phrased to hint at how silly such an
opinion would be, and therefore imply that you can't really think that
(and must have ulterior motives for so suggesting, etc etc).  Rhetorical
questions are a perfectly legitimate style of writing (although, like
all stylistic embellishments, they can be overused, and can be made much
less effective if murkily or fuzzily phrased), of course.


Alex