On Mon, 24 Feb 2020 at 08:52, Ethan Furman <et...@stoneleaf.us> wrote:

> In fact, when I first read Rhodri's post I thought it meant something along
> the lines of:  programming language -> pie in the sky perfection.  Hence, it
> is possible to be too terse.

I feel that this discussion has got out of hand, and it would be good
for everyone to take a breath and move on. However, *as a data point*
I will say that I took Soni's original statement as being a mildly
self-deprecating comment about a bit of code they had written (but
hadn't, IIRC, actually quoted in the posting, just referred to), which
in their view was not particularly clever but got the job done. I
personally wouldn't have used the word "shitty" in an email, but I
quite likely would have in spoken conversation, and I'm personally
much more formal in email than when speaking, and I know many other
people aren't. So I have no problem with Soni's use of the word.

I took Rhodri's comment as a mild rebuke - worded as it was to be
light-hearted and therefore not to be taken *too* seriously. Maybe he
doesn't like the language himself, maybe he was enforcing a standard
he felt was appropriate for the list, I don't know, and it doesn't
really matter. His comment was brief, and full of cultural
implications which (as an English person) I suspect I caught but which
may have been missed by others who are from different backgrounds.
Maybe it was a mistake being quite so colloquial, but it's an easy one
to make if you're not spending inordinate amounts of time fine-tuning
your emails.

Steven's objection to "shaming", while maybe technically accurate,
seemed to ignore a lot of the nuance. Maybe that's down to
personality, or cultural differences. But I do think it failed to
assume (or maybe "allow for the possibility of" would be more
accurate) good intentions. But I'm fine with assuming that it was
itself a well-intentioned attempt to caution people against giving
offense, which didn't have the intended effect.

Hopefully, if I've misinterpreted anyone's actual meaning in the
above, I've erred on the side of assuming good intention. If anyone
feels otherwise, I apologise.

I suggest that any harm that might have been done by the original post
is getting lost now in the increasing heat of the argument, and we'd
be better if we simply let the debate drop at this point.

Paul
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