Blatant errors in net.lang.c and flames thereagainst

[Guy Harris]

> Why, why, WHY will people roundly flame a guy/gal who has made a collossal
> gaffe like mine, yet not issue a peep when a plea goes out far and wide for
> some kind of information???

Because the number of people who, to use your example, know about an
undocumented flag in VMS C's "open" call is vastly less than the number of
people who know how "&&" and "||" work.  Only people who've worked with VMS
C *and* who have somehow found out about that flag could answer that
question, but anybody who knows enough about C to use it properly know how
"&&" and "||" work.  (Yes, this means anybody who *doesn't* know how they
work doesn't know enough about C to use it properly; they shouldn't be using
it until they complete their education in C.)

People who haven't read through at least one reasonable C book (K&R,
Harbison and Steele, whatever) shouldn't be posting to net.lang.c, except to
ask for the name of such a C book!  They don't know enough to make
intelligent statements about C (they may know about other languages, but it
would be an error for them to say their favorite language was better than C
because it has short-circuit Boolean operators and C doesn't, since C does),
and if they ask a question the chances are good that the answer can be found
in some reasonable C book.

As such, they could save news readers' time and many machine's phone time by
looking up the answer instead of asking the net.  The net should be used for
asking questions whose answer *can't* just be found by looking in the manual.

	Guy Harris