From: Bradley J Lucier (bjl@cs.purdue.edu)
Subject: Re: endless onanism about semantics 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
Date: 2004-09-02 08:36:28 PST 


This is not an attempt to answer what Shriram has posted, it is just my
explanation of how I see the situation.

GIVEN:

Will and Shriram and others are almost certainly right on the technical points,
and Bill is almost certainly wrong.  (I only put a qualification
there because I cannot personally verify the points, it seems to depend
on a lot of mathematics that I don't know and am not likely to learn.)

Will and Shriram and others have careers (even promising and/or flourishing
careers), and Bill does not.

Will and Shriram and others have the respect of the members of this forum,
and Bill does not.

So from all perspectives (technical, professional, and social), Will and Shriram
and others are in a superior position to Bill.

THEREFORE:

I find it ungracious that Will and Shriram and others in a position of total
superiority to Bill should attack Bill so vigorously.  It seems similar to
kicking a man when he's down (and the fact that Bill doesn't seem to
realize that he's down doesn't excuse kicking him).

And now I'll add this thread to my killfile, as I've added all the other
Bill Richter threads in this group.

Brad