That explains it all.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:[email protected]] On 
Behalf Of John Gilmore
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 9:43 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Load and Add

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.
--Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Élitism comes in several flavors.  Some, like those rooted in pride in
having chosen a  grandfather advantageously, are always ridiculous and
sometimes ugly.

Others are not.  The net has an implicit 'ethic' that makes all posts,
even and in particular uninformed ones, equally weighty.  This notion
has its places, but technical fora are not among them.   'Élitism'
used pejoratively is now usually followed by some dubious denigation
of specifically intellectual competence.  (High competence in sports
is not stigmatized in the same way.)

Here specifically we are dealing with a set of conventions that focus
on function rather than enumerative sequence.  Other choices might
have been made, as the Bastille might have fallen in October rather
than July, in which case the French would not now celebrate their Fête
Nationale on July 14th.  These other choices were not made, and those
that were made must now be understood and lived with.   This,
moreover, is no  bad thing; they hang together; and they have an
evolutionary rationale.

John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA

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