Politeness (was: we want python software)

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 11:25 pm, Rustom Mody wrote:

> On Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at 4:05:43 PM UTC+5:30, Steve D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Wed, 6 Dec 2017 02:49 pm, Rustom Mody wrote:
>> 
>> > You are assuming that the strangeness of the request is about 'tech'
>> > [engineering/tech existed centuries before computers]
>> > 
>> > Do remember one can be a tech-{student,professional} without
>> > - ever having encountered free-software
>> > - internet/USENET culture
>> > 
>> > … from which pov the request would not look so odd
>> 
>> So you're suggesting that rather than being unwilling to google for
>> "Download Python" because he doesn't understand free software culture, the
>> OP is unwilling to google for "Download Python" because he thinks it is
>> proprietary software and wants a bunch of strangers on the Internet to send
>> him a pirate copy?
>> 
>> I'm not entirely sure that's better...
> 
> Dunno anything about OP so no 'suggesting'…

Rustom, you LITERALLY suggested that the OP could be a tech student who isn't
familiar with free-software and that would explain the "strangeness" of the
request. What other interpretation of your words quoted above is reasonable?

You suggested that if he wasn't familiar with free software, his request that
people send him a copy of Python wouldn't look so odd. Okay, if Python
weren't free software, it would be non-free software, and you are saying that
it wouldn't look so odd for somebody to join a mailing list and request a
bunch of strangers to gift him a copy of non-free software.

That seems pretty odd to me. Laziness I get. Being so naive as to expect that
someone will purchase a legal copy and give it to a perfect stranger out of
the goodness of their heart, I don't think is so believable. But maybe that
happens all the time in India *shrug*

If the OP was as ignorant of software (whether free or not) and the Internet
as your defence of him makes out, I would expect his question would have
been "How do I get the Python? software" rather than "Send me the Python
software".

The OP clearly understands that Python is something that will run on his
computer, that it can be sent to him, that there are people willing and able
to do so, and he understands the internet well enough to expect those people
will be able to contact him without his needing to explicitly give them his
address.


> I did hint one point above which can be restated more explicitly.
> 
> An engineering degree (aka “B.Tech”) can be in any of
> - IT, CS, Computer Engineering etc
> - aeronautics, civil, electrical, mechanical… classical, non-computer
> related - bioinformatics, statistics, "scientific computing" etc ie
> heavy-duty *users*
>   of computers
> 
> For the latter two classes it would be normal/natural for the student to
> have little knowledge/interest in computer-related stuff except as a user.

None of this is the slightest bit relevant. The OP explicitly said that he
wants to learn Python. He's not some random civil engineering or biology
student, he is a tech student who wants to learn to program in Python.

And the idea that "users of computers" don't know how to use Google is
ludicrous. Google hasn't become one of the biggest tech companies in the
world because only a tiny number of Open Source programmers use it. It is
2017, not 1997, and Google is ubiquitous. Even my dad knows about Google and
he doesn't even have a computer, not even a smart phone.


[...]
> ie "unwilling to google" could well be "ignorant of google
> (usage/practices)" Do consider the possibility that a student could be a
> non-owner of a computer and/or studying in a college in a poor/non networked
> location.

Your hypothetical that the OP is a tech student who has barely used a computer
before and doesn't know about Google but nevertheless knows about Python
(which is about a million times less well-known) *and* is internet-savvy
enough to send an email to this mailing list is such a remote possibility
that I don't know why I'm even responding to it.


[...]
> IOW I would wish Ethan's "control yourself" to be imperated — preferably
> by oneself, if not then forcibly.
> And especially when the vitriol is flung at a first-time poster.

KM also appears to be a first-time poster. And after all the critical attacks
he's received, I doubt he'll hang around.



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.