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Nice! And a good time to remember Erik Naggum's epic S-exps vs. XML rant: http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML http://harmful.cat-v.org/software

by uriel 17y ago

Nice! And a good time to remember Erik Naggum's epic S-exps vs. XML rant: http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML

dschobel 17y ago
Robbery is not just another way of making a living, rape is not just another way of satisfying basic human needs, torture is not just another way of interrogation. And XML is not just another way of writing S-exps. There are some things in life that you do not do if you want to be a moral being and feel proud of what you have accomplished. It distresses me that someone could type that up and think it reasonable and worth sharing.
- uriel 17y ago
  It distresses me that so many people can't appreciate Naggum's genius :(
  - Confusion 17y ago
    Many people can appreciate any genius. They can't appreciate incoherent rants that wander from technical points to politics to cultural criticism to analogies doomed to distract any reader from the technical points. You will be recognized as a genius when you make insightful arguments others can follow and which teach them something; not when you require them to wade through a pile of irrelevant drivel, as if it was a high school exercise in summarising. Erik doesn't even make arguments. He just states things, like Remove the syntactic mess that is attributes. (You will then find that you do not need them at all.) Yeah, that's a really solid argument, that immediately convinced me that seperating syntactically between metadata elements and child data elements is not necessary...
- gloob 17y ago
  If you find that so distressing, I wonder how you feel about this little tidbit from Swift: I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust. There are types of writing that do not revolve around literally and bluntly saying what you mean. I rather doubt that Mr. Naggum actually believes that XML is morally comparable to rape, in much the same way that I rather doubt Mr. Swift was seriously arguing that the Irish should begin eating their children.
  - dschobel 17y ago
    To compare one of the greatest works of satire with Eric's vitriol belies a fundamental ignorance or insincerity. What Eric wrote is puerile condescending crap. But please, quote me an ironic passage of Shakespeare to reiterate Mr. Naggum's subtle genius.
    - gloob 17y ago
      To compare one of the greatest works of satire with Eric's vitriol belies a fundamental ignorance or insincerity. I would hope neither, obviously, though it's entirely possible I'm wrong. I would rather just discuss the writer's actual point rather than his stylistic decisions or personality flaws.

by uriel 17y ago

Nice! And a good time to remember Erik Naggum's epic S-exps vs. XML rant: http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML

dschobel 17y ago

Robbery is not just another way of making a living, rape is not just another way of satisfying basic human needs, torture is not just another way of interrogation. And XML is not just another way of writing S-exps. There are some things in life that you do not do if you want to be a moral being and feel proud of what you have accomplished. It distresses me that someone could type that up and think it reasonable and worth sharing.

uriel 17y ago
It distresses me that so many people can't appreciate Naggum's genius :(
- Confusion 17y ago
  Many people can appreciate any genius. They can't appreciate incoherent rants that wander from technical points to politics to cultural criticism to analogies doomed to distract any reader from the technical points. You will be recognized as a genius when you make insightful arguments others can follow and which teach them something; not when you require them to wade through a pile of irrelevant drivel, as if it was a high school exercise in summarising. Erik doesn't even make arguments. He just states things, like Remove the syntactic mess that is attributes. (You will then find that you do not need them at all.) Yeah, that's a really solid argument, that immediately convinced me that seperating syntactically between metadata elements and child data elements is not necessary...
gloob 17y ago
If you find that so distressing, I wonder how you feel about this little tidbit from Swift: I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust. There are types of writing that do not revolve around literally and bluntly saying what you mean. I rather doubt that Mr. Naggum actually believes that XML is morally comparable to rape, in much the same way that I rather doubt Mr. Swift was seriously arguing that the Irish should begin eating their children.
- dschobel 17y ago
  To compare one of the greatest works of satire with Eric's vitriol belies a fundamental ignorance or insincerity. What Eric wrote is puerile condescending crap. But please, quote me an ironic passage of Shakespeare to reiterate Mr. Naggum's subtle genius.
  - gloob 17y ago
    To compare one of the greatest works of satire with Eric's vitriol belies a fundamental ignorance or insincerity. I would hope neither, obviously, though it's entirely possible I'm wrong. I would rather just discuss the writer's actual point rather than his stylistic decisions or personality flaws.