Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!gateway!THEORY.LCS.MIT.EDU!bard
From: bard@THEORY.LCS.MIT.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Looking gift horses in the mouth.
Message-ID: <8811081714.AA01731@toucan.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 8 Nov 88 17:14:53 GMT
References: <8811081702.AA01518@theory.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Organization: BBN news/mail gateway
Lines: 24


Reid M. Pinchback writes:
>...  When
>users don't get these people to jump up and down at their beck and call,
>we begin to see increased net bandwidth consisting of messages containing
>snide remarks and personal slights.  
>...  Requests for info are reasonable,
>but David [Langdon], don't you think it would make more sense to
>sound encouraging instead of sarcastic? ...

  I didn't find the original posting particularly offensive, nor did I find
similar posting about my own public domain programs too obnoxious.  In
general, I was quite happy at the fact that there were people who were so
pleased with my work that they couldn't wait for the next release.  (For my
part, I was also amazed that there were enough people who used DEC Rainbows
to care about my pd program.  Programmers for more common machines might be
more used to it, but I still don't think they'd be insulted.)  
  I would take the inquiry as a complement, and chalk the sarcasm up to the
usual difficulties of expressing tone of voice by email.  It probably came
out sounding much more sarcastic than David Langdon had intended, at least to
Reid Pinchback's ear.  Just like this is more pedantic and goody-goody than I
want it to sound, but I don't feel like changing it.

  -- Bard the pd software gargoyle