alegria (04/01/83)
A number of articles posted on net.lang reminded me the opportunity of a letter from Dr. Daniel M. Berry, UCLA, which was published in the CACM FORUM, September 1982, Vol 25, N. 9, pp. 676-677. The title of the letter is "On Intellectual Irresponsibility." I recommend its reading before making any statements about this or that programming language or definitional method. For your convenience, I echo here some of the recommendations he makes: 1. If you criticize something, then you have the responsibility to know it well. 2. Do not repeat others' criticism as your own without taking the time to learn about the criticized object sufficiently to defend the criticism. Even if the others know what they are talking about, if you cannot defend your criticism, then 'you' are the loser. 3. If you hear criticism about something that is related to your work and you think you can do a better job, then really learn about the criticized thing, and really do a better job. 4. If you do work in an area, it is your responsibility to know what has happened in the past, especially if that work was published. It is no excuse to ignore that past work on the basis of hearsay criticism even if the content of the criticism does justify your conclusion of having obtained a new result. 5. If it turns out, despite all care, that you do not know something related to what you have done, then instead of repeating rumors, just say "I do not know." Jose' Alegria (...!cbosgd!osu-dbs!alegria) Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University =