[comp.lang.misc] On Doug's misstatements

brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (02/12/91)

In article <1991Feb11.162041.9889@spool.cs.wisc.edu> quale@picard.cs.wisc.edu (Douglas E. Quale) writes:
> Quote away, Dan.  I'm not afraid of the truth.

Very well, then, here goes. Followups to misc.test where they belong.

Since Doug challenged my accusation that he's a liar, here's proof that
he lied in the case that I said he did. I now question his academic
integrity in all cases. Followups to misc.test where they belong.

When Doug made his original statement, he was talking about ``a nested
call to compose in a posting made by someone else some time ago.'' I
pointed out that the call in question was improperly formed and
nonsensical.

In response to my statement, he said ``wtf are you talking about? square
o square o square is perfectly sensible...'' He then requested that I
explain what was nonsensical about his square o square o square
examples. His implication was that I had said square o square o square
was nonsensical. That implication is a lie.

Doug even offered to ``let me off'' of my supposed mistake with just
saying ``I was having a bad day.'' Well, I've given Doug a chance to
retract his statements, and he hasn't.

Here are the relevant quotes.

Doug, in article <1991Feb7.150537.9257@spool.cs.wisc.edu>:
> Compose has a simple mathematical definition, and since Dan is so proud
> of his math, he surely knows that (f o g) o h = f o (g o h).
> (Strangely he expressed confusion over a nested call to compose in a
> posting made by someone else some time ago, but this is really quite
> elementary.)

Me, in article <25199:Feb801:33:1191@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>:
> > Compose has a simple mathematical definition, and since Dan is so proud
> > of his math, he surely knows that (f o g) o h = f o (g o h).
> > (Strangely he expressed confusion over a nested call to compose in a
> > posting made by someone else some time ago, but this is really quite
> > elementary.)
> That call was improperly formed and nonsensical as both a mathematical
> expression and a C language expression.

Doug, in article <1991Feb8.191014.6430@spool.cs.wisc.edu>:
> >That call was improperly formed and nonsensical as both a mathematical
> >expression and a C language expression.
> Dan, wtf are you talking about??
> 	square o square o square
> is perfectly sensible as a mathematical expression.  The parens can be
> omitted because functional composition is associative, but most
> programming languages would prefer that you write
  [ etc. ]

Doug, later in the same article:
> And yes, Dan, I specifically request you to try explain what is nonsensical
> about those expressions.  I will be willing to let you off with simply
> "I was having a bad day."

(See? I was talking about the call someone posted a while back [which,
by the way, brought up a much more interesting subject---handling
polymorphism in C in practice---than anything Doug's said], and Doug is
saying here that I don't know how to compose three functions in a row.)

Me, in article <6828:Feb906:14:3491@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>:
> > >That call was improperly formed and nonsensical as both a mathematical
> > >expression and a C language expression.
> > Dan, wtf are you talking about??
> You referred to the time when I expressed confusion over the supposed
> meaning of somebody's nested compose() call. In case you don't remember,
> the call in question tried to compose the compose function with an
> integer function. Once again, that call was improperly formed and
> nonsensical as both a mathematical expression and a C language
> expression.

Me, later in the same article:
>   [ about the square examples again ]
> > And yes, Dan, I specifically request you to try explain what is nonsensical
> > about those expressions.
> I never said that those expressions were nonsensical. Your implication
> is a lie, plain and simple. I doubt you have the integrity to review the
> articles and apologize, but I'll give you one chance to do so before I
> start quoting things in public.

---Dan