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From: Daniel Finster <DF at SDF.LONESTAR.ORG>
Subject: Re: Ethics in programming
Message-ID: <DHCEtF.Mxn@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG>
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Organization: Miskatonic ICA - Dallas TX
References: <456e5q$3kve@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> <19951020T160257Z@naggum.no> <46h43h$53e@life.ai.mit.edu> <19951024T031514Z@naggum.no> <46k1eh$l4o@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 02:27:14 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.software-eng:38414 comp.object:40147 comp.lang.ada:36861 comp.lang.lisp:19814 gnu.misc.discuss:24687

    From: Erik Naggum <ERIK at NAGGUM.NO>

    we use "better" tools, not "good" tools.  at the very least, we
    focus on the better sides, not on the worst possible aspects.
    otherwise, going nuts fast is inevitable.
    
That may be true for you; I use -good- tools, like Symbolics Genera.
I choose to avoid tools that are anything less than the best.
    
    I wonder what's wrong with whoever wrote this.

I wonder what's wrong with the cretins that want to give him a nobel
prize.

    I've seen a lot of people express the most intense hatred for RMS,
    with an accompanying deep interest in vilifying those who work on
    GNU projects or with him.

I said it in my original post and I'll say it again: RMS -used to be-
(before 1980 or so) an -extremely brilliant person-, who made a lot of
important contributions to the design of tools I use every day.  I do
not vilify or despise the people who write GNU software.  GNU software
and GNU.AI.MIT.EDU machines have been very valuable to me at times
that I've been forced to wade through the slime of eunuchs.  I don't
even really -hate- RMS; I just think he has gone totally off into
lossage, and I really get sick of people thinking he's some kind of
god, or genius, or messiah, or whatever.

I'm not opposed to the concepts of free flow of information, and
sharing programs with others.  I -AM- opposed to the particular
communist overtones of RMS' philosophy, expressed in the GNU
Manifesto.

    does, of course, mean that those who attack him on the basis of
    irrelevant feelings or issues should be countered simply because
    they do not present the whole truth, only the part of it that they
    self-servingly want to be perceived as the whole truth in order to
    be relieved of the duty to present actual arguments.
    
The same is true of those that are seriously enthralled by the guy:
they do not present the whole truth, only the part of it that they
self-servingly want to be perceived as the whole truth.  They do not
present actual arguments, reverting instead to "RMS is such a cool
stud, and he provides all this nifty software for free, so how dare
you possibly say anything bad about him?"

It goes both ways, sir.  But, in the spirit of fairness, I am trying
to present a more on-track viewpoint.  You have to realize that I'm
not slamming the guy.

I think he needs to be dumped in the cold-load stream with a bar of
soap. Leave him there for a few hours to clean up, cut his frigging
jesus beard and hippie hair off, and lock him out of the AI Lab for a
few months or so to let people disinfect the building.

Then maybe they can let him back in, after they have replaced his
eunuchs workstation with a SHOWER.
