On Feb 25, 2004, at 6:58 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> It is difficult to address complaints that don't treat the real
> world factually. Most of the complaints on the "Petition to retire
> Fortran" were complaints about things that simply are not true.
It is also difficult to conclude anything about the signers. All
the comments here about them have been pure speculation.... which
could just as well have been done without this "data", the data
being pretty much useless.
We don't even know what the signers thought they were signing. I
forget which points have been made here and which ones on
comp.lang.fortran,
but it is clear that different people have different interpretations of
what the petition is even about. Several of the comments say that it
isn't really about retiring Fortran, the title to the contrary. Well,
whatever you might conclude that the petition originator might have
intended, I don't see how you can conclude anything about what the
signers thought it was about. Speculate all you want, but it is
just speculation - it isn't data.
I don't claim that there are no problems. I just claim that this
"survey" isn't constructive data about them. If you want to raise
issues,
then raise them. But if you claim to speak on behalf of the signers of
this petition, then that just lowers the credibility. Raise the
issues on their own merit or with data that actually is relevant.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
[log in to unmask] | experience comes from bad judgment.
| -- Mark Twain
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