Re: Nasty comments

Kai Henningsen (kai@khms.westfalen.de)
25 Jul 1996 09:02:00 +0200


hab@ece.engr.ucf.edu (Hubert A. Bahr) wrote on 23.07.96 in <31F52855.435C4F67@ece.engr.ucf.edu>:

> I gave up using curse words to impress somebody 30 years ago. Okay
> I'm old. As a Vietnam Vet I certainly had the opurtunity to invent
> and use my share.

As has been pointed out repeatedly, lots of people who use swear words
_don't_ do this to impress somebody.

> My problem with curse words in published code, which is what
> putting your code on an ftp site essentially does, publish it. Is
> that it reflects a lack of pride in the product. I didn't know that
> code for linux was being put out against a deadline and against the
> authors wishes. It should be a freely given product that reflects
> pride in its development.

Why do you think these things are incompatible with pride in the product?
I would certainly not think so.

> I've certainly known the frustration of long debugging sessions
> and been warned by my wife more than once about the salt air around
> my computer, but I find time to tidy up before I publish.

Now *that* I would associate with a lack of pride in what you have done -
you obviously think it's not good enough.

> As the Linux product becomes more professional it becomes more
> and more tempting to use sections of it as examples for class discussion
> and I would rather have the discussion on what the code does than
> what the comments contain. All in all, if I see code with profanity
> in it, it colors my view of its value and certainly makes me question
> its use, especially for discussion.

That simply demonstrates your prejudices.

Those comments illustrate a very important real-world fact: that producing
good, reliable code can sometimes be extremely frustrating work. (Or, in
the case of "X wrote it, Y fucked it up", it is a reminder that this is
the work of many, many people, and that merging all this stuff is a very
non-trivial exercise.)

MfG Kai