Apologies

[Kenneth R. Ballou]

In article <1473 at brl-adm.ARPA> KJBSF%SLACVM.BITNET at wiscvm.wisc.edu writes:
>I must say that I have found all of your responses recently to be extremely
>rude.  Can't you say anything CIVIL when you think that the other person is
>obviously some lower form of life?  Your snide comments detract from whatever
>arguments you might be making.
>    I think you should think a bit more before posting such garbage to the net
>again.  Just think about who's on the receiving end of your diatribes.
>
>- Kevin Burnett
>SLAC

	Actually, you are quite right.  Upon re-reading my posting, I see that
it certainly does look like a personal attack on the poster.  For all the good
it does, I did not mean it as such.  Of course, that does not take back what
I wrote.

	I also owe Moshe Braner a substantial apology.  If I recall correctly,
I have come down on his last few postings 'like a ton of bricks,' conveying
an attitude that he is incompetent.  Please let me note that he has in fact
contributed a respectable scheme for object oriented programming involving
clever use of the C preprocessor.  Although I found the message passing syntax
(which has unbalanced parentheses) unattractive, his system is still a fine
piece of work.

	That having been said, let me state that I will also steadfastly argue
against proposals to radically alter C because processor X on machine Y in
environment Z makes a certain feature easy to implement.  I still hold firmly
to the belief that C can be made to run in diverse settings relatively easily
exactly because the language is small and does not make extreme demands of
the machine/processor, as (for example) a requirement that there be arrays
of bitfields would.

	Perhaps I might also offer, for want of a better term, some unsolicited
advice?
	1) Before posting a question, please look in a reasonable reference
	   book (K&R or Harbison & Steele to answer questions about what is
	   current practice, or the ANSI standard document to see what should
	   be current practice in the future.  This would seem to be a quicker
	   way of finding out whether 'exit 0' is legal C or not.

	2) Before posting a code fragment, please try compiling it to see
	   if it actually does what you claim it should do.

Then, I will offer myself some advice:
	3) Show the same courtesy to those with opinions differing from mine
	   as I expect of them.

	Please look for a posting I plan to make on the subject of why casts
should not yield l-values that I hope will show I am almost as capable of
rational discussion as I am of personal attacks.

	Excuse me while I set down to a hefty and well-deserved serving
of crow ...

--------
Kenneth R. Ballou			ARPA:  ballou at brahms
Department of Mathematics		UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!brahms!ballou
University of California
Berkeley, California  94720
--------
Kenneth R. Ballou			ARPA:  ballou at brahms
Department of Mathematics		UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!brahms!ballou
University of California
Berkeley, California  94720