simplified Python parsing question

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:40:50 -0400, Eric S. Johansson wrote:

> If you have been reading the papers, you would understand what I'm
> doing. 

That is the second time, at least, that you have made a comment like that.

Understand that most people are not going to follow links to find out 
whether or not they are interested in what you have to say. If you can't 
give a brief explanation of what you are doing in your email or news 
post, many people aren't going to read on. Perhaps they intend to but are 
too busy, or they have email access but web access is restricted, or 
they've already got 200 tabs open in their browser and don't want any 
more (I'm not exaggerating, I know people like that).

People use email because it is a "push" technology -- you don't have to 
go out and look for information, it gets pushed into your inbox. Clicking 
on links is a "pull" technology -- you have to make the explicit decision 
to click the link, open a browser, go out to the Internet and read who 
knows what. That requires a different frame of mind. Expect to lose some 
of your audience every time you require them to follow a link.

And *especially* so if that it a link to Google Docs, instead of an 
normal web page. Google Docs is, in my opinion, a nasty piece of rubbish 
that doesn't run on any of my browsers. As far as I'm concerned, I'd 
rather download a Word doc, because at least I can open that in 
OpenOffice or Abiword and read it. Something in Google Docs might as well 
be locked in a safe as far as I'm concerned.


-- 
Steven