Ideas about how software should behave (was: replacing `else` with `then` in `for` and `try`)

[Ian Kelly]

On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 11:55 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Please stop defending the use of incivility on this list.
>
> Please stop conflating people, who deserve civility, with ideas. We must
> not allow the civility deserved by people, to prevent us from
> criticising any ideas — especially not ideas about the behaviour of
> software.

No, I won't. I once believed this, too. I used it as a defense for
criticism of religious ideas. "Oh, I'm not attacking the believers in
religion. I'm attacking the *ideas* of religion." And I meant it, too:
I wasn't *trying* to insult anybody when I would say that religious
belief was foolish and ignorant.

Nowadays I realize and accept that this is preposterous. You cannot
criticize an idea without also criticizing the people who are attached
to that idea. Even if no personal slight is intended, it is received
that way. If your idea is bad, then by implication you are a person
with bad ideas.

Now, I'm not saying that we can't criticize ideas. We can, however,
choose to be polite or not in how we go about it.