5 ms·

I used to work at OmniTI. The real irony of this article is that it was written by a guy who's (in)famous for his indecipherable Perl one-liners. I think that'

I used to work at OmniTI. The real irony of this article is that it was written by a guy who's (in)famous for his indecipherable Perl one-liners. I think that's about all that needs to be said.

kyberias 13y ago
> I think that's about all that needs to be said. Yeah, and that's like a perfect definition for "ad hominem" argument.
- forgottenpass 13y ago
  No, actually it's not. This isn't ignoring the issue at hand and just attacking the author's character, it's attacking the authors authority on a subject matter.
  - kyberias 13y ago
    If one focuses on personal characteristics (here skills) of the author rather than the logical construction of his argument, it is in fact ad hominem.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- Gracana 13y ago
  No it's not. If the author's methodologies result in undecipherable code, that's quite relevant to the discussion.
  - kyberias 13y ago
    The author has presented an argument. Whether the author himself generates any code at all has absolutely no effect on the validity of his arguments.
    - Karunamon 13y ago
      Since when is credibility not a thing?
      - kyberias 13y ago
        His arguments can be validated only based on its internal logical structure. One should not try to invalidate it based on his claimed credibility. That's ad hominem. See here: http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html Example: A: "All rodents are mammals, but a weasel isn't a rodent, so it can't be a mammal." B: "I'm sorry, but I'd prefer to trust the opinion of a trained zoologist on this one." B's argument is ad hominem: he is attempting to counter A not by addressing his argument, but by casting doubt on A's credentials. Note that B is polite and not at all insulting.
        Karunamon 13y ago
        Credibility is a heuristic to determine what arguments should be evaluated and which should be discarded. It is not reasonable to expect every person to critically evaluate the word of every person who has something to say on a subject.
- nateabele 13y ago
  You people really need to work on your fallacies. Quoting from the Wikipedia definition of Ad hominem: "[I]n which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author [...]" Leon is a really nice, super funny guy, but the fact that no one can maintain the code he writes is highly relevant to the subject of the article. In summary, http://lwtc247.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/get-a-brain-morans.jpg http://lwtc247.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/get-a-brain-moran...
  - frou_dh 13y ago
    Hehe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6803680 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6803680
  - kyberias 13y ago
    Exactly. I claim that someone's personal opinion on the author's coding skills IS irrelevant. We should concentrate on his _arguments_, not dismiss his arguments based on here-say about what he has or hasn't done. He doesn't argue that HE writes good code, he discusses general topics.
- EpicEng 13y ago
  ...Not sure you know what "Ad Hominem" means... This is not a disaccreditation of the man based upon his character or something unrelated to the topic, his ability to write good code is highly relevant to the issue at hand.

I used to work at OmniTI. The real irony of this article is that it was written by a guy who's (in)famous for his indecipherable Perl one-liners. I think that's about all that needs to be said.

kyberias 13y ago

> I think that's about all that needs to be said. Yeah, and that's like a perfect definition for "ad hominem" argument.

forgottenpass 13y ago
No, actually it's not. This isn't ignoring the issue at hand and just attacking the author's character, it's attacking the authors authority on a subject matter.
- kyberias 13y ago
  If one focuses on personal characteristics (here skills) of the author rather than the logical construction of his argument, it is in fact ad hominem.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
Gracana 13y ago
No it's not. If the author's methodologies result in undecipherable code, that's quite relevant to the discussion.
- kyberias 13y ago
  The author has presented an argument. Whether the author himself generates any code at all has absolutely no effect on the validity of his arguments.
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    Since when is credibility not a thing?
    - kyberias 13y ago
      His arguments can be validated only based on its internal logical structure. One should not try to invalidate it based on his claimed credibility. That's ad hominem. See here: http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html Example: A: "All rodents are mammals, but a weasel isn't a rodent, so it can't be a mammal." B: "I'm sorry, but I'd prefer to trust the opinion of a trained zoologist on this one." B's argument is ad hominem: he is attempting to counter A not by addressing his argument, but by casting doubt on A's credentials. Note that B is polite and not at all insulting.
      - Karunamon 13y ago
        Credibility is a heuristic to determine what arguments should be evaluated and which should be discarded. It is not reasonable to expect every person to critically evaluate the word of every person who has something to say on a subject.
nateabele 13y ago
You people really need to work on your fallacies. Quoting from the Wikipedia definition of Ad hominem: "[I]n which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author [...]" Leon is a really nice, super funny guy, but the fact that no one can maintain the code he writes is highly relevant to the subject of the article. In summary, http://lwtc247.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/get-a-brain-morans.jpg http://lwtc247.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/get-a-brain-moran...
- frou_dh 13y ago
  Hehe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6803680 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6803680
- kyberias 13y ago
  Exactly. I claim that someone's personal opinion on the author's coding skills IS irrelevant. We should concentrate on his _arguments_, not dismiss his arguments based on here-say about what he has or hasn't done. He doesn't argue that HE writes good code, he discusses general topics.
EpicEng 13y ago
...Not sure you know what "Ad Hominem" means... This is not a disaccreditation of the man based upon his character or something unrelated to the topic, his ability to write good code is highly relevant to the issue at hand.