perry (02/21/83)
A few months ago the rage of the net.lang.c news group was "My way to indent IF statements is better than yours". Nearly one hundred people stayed up late at night formulating their own contribution to this all important question. Nearly that many employers paid alot of bucks in salarys while the leaders of tomorrow merrily typed their expositions in on their respective machines. And untold thousands had to wade through all that garbage for weeks. I sent a letter to net.lang.c asking all the proud authors only two simple questions. The first was an inquiry as to whom they thought gave the slightest crap how they indented their IF statements. The second asked if they really thought that their brilliantly uninspired prose really contributed a thing towards making the day of all the people who to sort through note after repetitious note. Though I was braced for receiving droves of responses citing my arrogance and obnoxiousnous I received precious few notes each of which expressed applause for saying what alot of people were thinking and feeling. I think the time has come again for someone to flame (on a network wide basis) on all the people who think that the news is their private help line. Also, for the people who "discover" the wheel again and again and feel that it is their divine calling enlighten us poor huddled masses, a large hairy hand should break your fingers the next time you want write about the "uninitialized arrow" bug in rouge 3.6. To the person who asks "How do I redirect the output of the C compiler..." (nothing personal but) try reaching for a Unix manual before you reach the keyboard. Jeez! At least you could ask a more enlightened friend or (shock the world) learn something about Unix on your own. Even more disappointing are all the people who replied via the news group to such a request (Oh gee, I guess it is more difficult to reply directly to an author rather than to a news group - really - all those nasty computer names to copy down!) A few words for a few more of my favorite subjects that have *each* warranted tens (if not hundreds) of letters: o No I am not hungry now and I don 't care which if the fast food sandwiches bites the big wazoo. (net.general of all places) o I don't care how old you are -- and Gordon and Ellen have since sold the rights to the story of their conflict to a major studio. (net.singles) o Termcap isn't really that abstract is it? After all, we are all supposed to be fairly competent computer related people here. You can find a termcap entry for any terminal you have ever seen, touched, typed or gazed upon by strolling over to the terminal's manual and reading the itty bitty section on "programming" (Argh! That nasty word!) o I don't care how you delete your files, printable names or not (net.unix-wizards - my how the standards of that news group have plummeted -- More like net.unix-apprentices after Fantasia). o I'll bet you didn't know that if eat all your food at once you'll still get hungry around 1500 turns later. Or that you can become ever hastened in the older rogues. Or that bats are confused. Or that orcs sometimes run away from you (and towards gold). And let the truth be told, rust monsters burp on leather armor. Go ahead - next week send in another letter starting "Hey -- I was playing the other day and...." (net.guess-what). Frankly, there are dozens of other subjects which are either inanely trivial, or were once interesting but have since been beat into the ground by hordes of netsters who think they can offer the definitive word. I am tempted to blurt "You can't so shut up!" But moderation prevails. Instead people - please think before you write... is what you are saying worth reading??... is the news group really the better than a direct reply? will a jillion other people think of the same thing and write to the net as well? Braced for your counter flame. And your friend's. And his friend's. And her friends. And his uncle's. And her favorite baby sitter's. And................................................................. perry s. kivolowitz (so there!) peri!sbcs!perry
dixon (02/25/83)
I would klike to second the remarks made by Scott Preece (uicsl!preece) reargdinggarding the problem of finding answers to Unix (TM) related questions in the manuals. d a dixon ihuxs!dixon DBTL - IH
dixon (02/25/83)
Sorry for the typing errors in that last article. My backspace key was not set. It was meant to state that I seconded the remarks by Scott Preece regarding the problems of finding the answers to UNIX (TM) related questions in the manuals. d a dixon ihuxs!dixon BTL IH