On May 25, 12:26 am, Thorsten Kampe <thors...@thorstenkampe.de> wrote: > * Rikishi42 (Wed, 25 May 2011 00:06:06 +0200) > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 2011-05-24, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: > > >>> I think that is a patronizing remark that under-estimates the > > >>> intelligence of lay people and over-estimates the difficulty of > > >>> understanding recursion. > > > >> Why would you presume this to be related to intelligence? The point was > > >> not about being *able* to understand, but about *needing* to understand > > >> in order to use. > > > > Maybe they don't "need" to understand recursion. So what? > > > I think you should read the earlier posts again, this is drifting so far > > from what I intended. > > > What I mean is: I'm certain that over the years I've had more than one > > person come to me and ask what 'Do you wish to delete this directory > > recursively?' meant. BAut never have I been asked to explain what 'Do you > > wish to delete this directory and it's subdirs/with all it's contents?' > > meant. Never. > > Naming something in the terms of its implementation details (in this > case recursion) is a classical WTF. > > On the other hand, it's by far not the only WTF in Unix. For instance, > how often have you read "unlink" instead of "delete"? Or "directory" > instead of "folder", pointing out that "directory" is the correct term > because a directory is just a listing and does not "contain" the actual > files. Of course these implementation details will never matter to > anyone except under the rarest conditions. > > Thorsten
well said. half of posts in this thread are from idiots. just incredible, but again, its newsgroups ... what am i thinking ... Xah -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
