On Tue, 23 Jul 1996, Hubert A. Bahr wrote:
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> My view on comments is if the author doesn't have pride in
> his code and leaves explatives in it so be it. I won't have pride
> in it either. For runtime messages, I concur, there is no proper
> place for them in published code.
>
> Hubert Bahr
>