Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!ogicse!intelhf!ichips!iWarp.intel.com!inews!hopi!bhoughto From: bhoughto@hopi.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: On comp.lang.c [was Re: declaring defines.] Message-ID: <4794@inews.intel.com> Date: 21 Jun 91 04:14:00 GMT References: <1991Jun17.132947.5296@druid.uucp> <1991Jun18.092200.13541@herald.usask.ca> Sender: news@inews.intel.com Organization: Intel Corp, Chandler, AZ Lines: 45 In article <1991Jun18.092200.13541@herald.usask.ca> nesbitt@herald.usask.ca (Murray Nesbitt) writes: >Don't count on it. This newsgroup is completely and probably >irreparably out of control. What was once a Good Thing is now a Big >Joke. Y'know, the funny thing is that I haven't noticed a sparrow's tit of difference in the level of content or S/N ratio from the vox populi in this group. There's just many more populi voxing, just as there are many more machines spreading the news (in fact, I dare say the net itself has grown about twice as fast as this group). I think Doug et al simply matured (as I have) beyond their earlier state of awareness and simply didn't notice (as I, on the other hand, have) that the fat part of the bell-curve is getting farther below them because they're reaching into the thin part above (e.g., I think it's conceivable that Doug, Karl, Henry, and Chris could be shown to know more now about C than Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan knew about it in 1978, when they probably first learned it, modulo enhancements due to standardization, but they'd never be able to admit it to themselves; I could admit it--because I've got an ego the size of the average Carolinian island golf resort, a fact I've never hidden nor denied--though I haven't, because I think I'm still shy a nuance or two, but I'm a damn sight heftier a hacker than the day I entered this evanescent realm). >My grandfather used to say: "All the world isn't an IBM PC" and "Just >because you're coding it in C, doesn't make it a C problem." Classical customer engineering paradox: if the customer is lost, he can't tell you how to find him, even if he recognizes he's not where he's supposed to be. >Oh God, are they ever. Are the remaining gurus paying attention? Shhhh. Wait until they're all croaking pretty good, then if you shine your flashlight out across the water of the pond, you can see their eyes shining back at you... --Blair "If I get to be a guru, do I have to get the Beatles hooked on pot and sitars?"