questions from using lint

[Jeff Makey]

> [Steve Summit politely quotes "The Elements of Style" when
> criticizing Jim Cottrell's abuse of English and C.]
 
Jim flames back:
> Attacking me on both fronts, eh?  Well GFY! . . . What kind of a
> person would let the way someone spells bother them? . . . After
> all, you *do* understand me don't you?

Jim's abuse of English (e.g., his use of the letter "x") is not only
poor communication, it is discourteous.  It is poor communication
because it draws attention to the wrong words in his sentences (imagine
random use of italics).  It is discourteous because it makes *me* (and
hundreds of other people) waste mental effort trying to understand what
he is writing.  Sure, it's cute the first time you see it, but (just
like being told for the 50th time that your shoe is untied when it
isn't) it gets downright annoying after awhile.

A quote from Jim:
> I program for myself.

If this was true then Jim's programming style would be of no concern
to me or anyone else.  Unfortunately, other people sometimes have to
make changes to Jim's code.  I found myself in this position about a
year and a half ago when I attempted to fix a bug in a version of the
"more" program Jim had left behind when he left the company I work for.
Imagine my dismay when the program turned out to be written in some
strange "language" with keywords such as BEGIN, ENDWHILE, etc. instead
of in C.  All of the #defines were there, but it would have taken just
too much effort to learn it this "language".  (I'm no Bozo.  C is at
least the 8th computer language I've used in the last 11 years.)  I
gritted my teeth and let the bug live.

As the saying goes, Real Programmers can write FORTRAN code in *any*
language.  I'm not accusing Jim of writing FORTRAN code in C, but I
*am* accusing him of using wonderful, obscure programming tricks
instead of common techniques that are much easier to understand (and
are sometimes more efficient).  It's really neat once you've figured
out what the trick is, but you've just spent 3 hours analyzing 40 lines
of code.

More from Jim:

> You can't please everyone all of the time.  And you can't expect
> people to please you either.  All you can do get off on [sic] the
> common ground, while putting aside the (minor & insignificant)
> differences.  I quit trying to please everyone else long ago.

Things that are minor and insignificant to one person can be very
important to somebody else (one man's code is another man's design
specification).  The question seems to be: does Jim try to please
*anybody* besides himself?  Jim's arrogance emphasizes his immaturity,
and as long as he behaves that way I will have to firmly agree with
Greg Paris, who said:

> 1) I'm glad that Mr. Cottrell doesn't work here; 2) I'd never
> recommend him being hired as a programmer, anywhere.

Jim's flaming ROT13 reply to this (I didn't need any software to see
that it decrypted to the expansion of "GFY", an acronym Jim likes to
use when he has lost an argument) just reinforces Greg's statement.

>	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell		<rbj at cmr>
>	"You used to laugh about
>	 Everybody that was hanging out"

	"People call,
	 Say ''beware, doll,
	 You're bound to fall.''
	 You thought they were all
	 Kidding you."

                     :: Jeff Makey
                        Makey at LOGICON.ARPA
                        The opinions expressed above are solely my own.