Re: [boost] Macros at namespace scope: trailing semicolon?

From: Paul Mensonides (pmenso57_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-07-18 06:26:22

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] 
> [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of David Abrahams

> > If you want to please your customers, *knowing* what their 
> motivations 
> > are, then the motivations are transitive.
> 
> No, my motivations are mine, and their motivations are 
> theirs.  I refuse to accept -- and you have no right to claim

I most certainly do.

> -- that someone else's motivations become mine.  Motivation 
> is a personal phenomenon like intention and emotion.  The 
> motivated person is the ultimate authority.

It is for me (or anyone else) to judge and make decisions based on what I
believe to be the your or anyone else's motivations.  I believe what I said, and
you can believe that its an irrelevant philosophical point of view, but is
certainly my prerogative to apply and make statements of what I believe.

> Anyway, this is getting quite silly.  For me this is a 
> technical issue, not a moral one, and I really don't want to 
> get drawn further into a philisophical discussion of 
> responsibility.  I don't care all that much whether the 
> semicolon is included in the macro, and since I am feeling 
> overwhelmed and somewhat attacked I think I'll probably do nothing.

You feel attacked?

> Ooooooo Kaaaaaay.

I don't find this amusing; I find it insulting--even though it wasn't directed
at me.

> In other words, everything else in service of wiping out some 
> people's silly misconceptions about what macros are.  Have I 
> got that right?

I find this insulting and inflammatory.  The last sentence doesn't undo the what
I perceive to be the tone of the first.

> Ahem.

I find this insulting as well.

> I am only becoming more convinced to the contrary.

Given the context of this statement, I find this snide.

> So, no spaces anywhere else on the line?  Try again.
                                            ^^^^^^^^^

Again, I find this insulting, especially because you know full well that it is
easily fixable.  Of course some policies can be difficult to create; this is not
an example of one of those policies and is illustrative of nothing.

> But -- sincerely -- thank you anyway for going to the trouble 
> to respond to my query and make your thoughts on the issue clear.

Here I believe that you may be sincere, but mostly that you're trying to smooth
the waters.  At this point, I just find this to be a placating non-resolution to
a personality clash that creeps up time and time again.

I could chalk up all of these to misinterpretation, but it has happened so damn
often with you that I'm wary of it from the start, and I simply won't believe
you if you say it wasn't intentional.  So, you feel attacked?  That isn't
surprising at all, given that comments like these--along with a significant
history of comments that I find to be either snide, insulting, inflammatory,
condescending, or arrogant--can instantly piss me off.  I know that I'm not
perfect, and I know that many of things that I say in frustration are less than
civil.  But with you, it isn't frustration, it's a reaction to this kind of
thing happening nearly single every time, and each time I get to the boiling
point sooner.  I tire of it.