Zealotry [was Re: how to install lxml in window xp?]

[alex23]

On Jan 13, 3:02 pm, Steven D'Aprano <steve
+comp.lang.pyt... at pearwood.info> wrote:
> Why is it that only Linux and Mac users are accused of being "zealots"?

Oh please. Don't tar me with the Windows brush. I'd have used the same
term no matter what OS was being recommended.

> If I ask how to install (say) MYOB or Photoshop on Linux, and people tell
> me that I will have to use Windows if I want to easily run that software,
> I don't accuse them of being a zealot.

And if lxml didn't have Windows binaries, then maybe this would be the
case.

[snippety snippety to the rest of your straw men]

> That may be true, but the advice remains reasonable advice. If somebody
> asks you how to get from Iceland to Norway by car, it is perfectly
> reasonable to tell them that they will find it much easier to use a plane
> or boat.

In what way is downloading pre-built binaries and then installing lxml
on Windows like driving across the ocean?

This is a new low in pedantry for you.

> Some Windows users are so used to being the centre of the computing
> universe that any time they hit a problem that is easier to solve on
> another OS, and people dare remind them of that fact, they get their nose
> out of joint.

Because suggesting people ditch their environment whenever they hit a
single bit of friction - whether it's one they've chosen or had forced
upon them - is absolutely ridiculous. And believe me, _no_ user of
Windows' Python would ever make the mistake of thinking they were the
centre of _that_ world.

Recommending another OS to a clearly phrased problem is the IT
equivalent of the old joke about the doctor saying "well don't do that
then". It doesn't do _anything_ to address the actual problem the
person is trying to solve.